L and V's Back Yard BBQ!

Way to go lakers fans! (stupids)

2010-06-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

Its no secret that basketball is finally over. Mercifully concluded. I watched the last 7 minutes of game seven of the Lakers versus the Boston team. It seemed to drag on forever!! And what's the deal with there being a "penalty shot" whenever someone as much as looks at someone? I thought this was a Man's league?

OK, sorry, I'm not writing this to bitch about basketball, just their fans.

Hundreds of extra police had to be deployed because Lakers fans can't behave themselves. The Lakers win the championship! Kick Ass! Awesome! NEEEEEE HAWWWW! I know, I'll light a car on fire, destroy a bus and tip other vehicles over. because its well known the world over that nothing says congratulations like random acts of useless destruction.

Don't get me wrong, the majority celebrates and has a good time. At the apartment place where I live there was a bunch of people hootin and hollerin and carrying on in celebration. And that's cool. But nothing says you are a moron more than you jumping up and down on a car that isn't yours and destroying it. Every single one of those morons that are vandalizing would be PISSED off if someone was breaking their crap.

I say arrest them all. And then they get to watch as people get to break everything they own. Dumbasses, that's all they are.

Oh, and in a move I thought was pretty cool: After the game some lakers player named Ron Artest thanked his shrink for his success. Dude must have serious problems if this is the first person he thanks after winning the championship.

The "Badassery" Top 10

2010-06-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about who the top ten movie villains were, when an even better thought popped into my head: What would a list look like where the top 10 were all bad asses all the time? Where there is no room on the list for weakness. I mean movie villains are typically beaten, and usually by some weak retarded idiotic plot manuver that if it stayed true to the character would never have happend.

So with that I present to you the top ten Badasses:

10: Darth Vader. He set the bar. Yes he became a wuss in the last Star Wars movie but in the first two? He WAS THE bad ass. He was a stooge for the emperor, but the emperor was no match for him. Vader looks cool, and makes Jedi squirm in their goodie goodie boots.

9: Chuck Norris. Wait what? Trust me, look up Chuck Norris on the Internet and you will see all kinds of references as to how much of a bad ass Chuck is. And besides, once you see Invasion USA, and Missing in Action 1 and 2, you'll be convinced.

8: That Douche CEO from BP, Tony something or other. I know you think I'm nuts, but bear with me. This guy knows that the oil spill in the gulf is the worst ecological disaster in US history and he has the stones to say: "In comparison to the ocean which is large, this is a small oil spill", and this gem: "There are more shrimp providers than just Louisiana". This guy could teach Norris and Vader a thing or two.

7: Nosferatu: This is what a vampire is supposed to be. Not some pretty boy with long flowing hair and dashing eyes and sparkles in the light. The undead are supposed to be horrible creatures, not creatures of envy. Nosferatu is horrible. Horrible to look at and horrible to experience. He'll kill and destroy whatever he has to so he can get his blood on. Top that sparkly twitard things.

6: Machiavelli: This guy wrote the manual on how to be a bad ass. Read his book "The Prince" and then get back to me if you disagree. His book is a how to manual on how a bad ass is supposed to operate. And anyone who can write that is a bad ass.

5: The Devil. If God is all that is good in this world than certainly the devil is all that is evil and rotten. A bad ass not need be an anti-hero, he can be a bad ass and be totally despised. But in considering the list, for the sake of integrity I must include the oldest bad ass history has known.

4: Barny: Yes that purple F'n dinosaur. He acts all cute and stuff, but when parents aren't watching he brainwashes your kids into pressuring you to buy his bad ass merchandise. and how can parents refuse their whining brats. If the Devil is the OG bad ass, he still looks up to Barny for how to do it right.

3: The Brown Recluse Spider: This is the bad ass of bad asses in the insect world. Google spider necrosis and see the badassery that this spider can unleash upon you. This spider bites you and if merciful death doesn't claim you, then you develop necrosis. And that means that the area affected just dies. It does not grow back and their is no cure.

2: The Tall Man from the Phantasm movies: This guy is relentless. He has that wicked cool ball that he can send after you and he'll chase you himself, and if that doesn't work he's got an army of midgets at his disposal. He will get you.

1: The number 1 bad ass i leave to you, whoever has read this. Let me know who you think is the biggest bass ass in history and why. This could be fun.

Runner up. I was gonna put myself in this list as a bad ass. But we all know that I'm not. I pay my taxes, love my family and stay home more often than not. But I'm good with not being on the list.

Other runner up: I was gonna put The Eye of sauron and his minions on this list, but geez come on they got beat by a retarded midget.

Thrown Under The Bus By Alex

2010-03-07T20:35:00.001-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted one of these so I thought it was a good idea to get it going again by telling one of my favorite stories from the recent past.

Let me set this up by saying there are some TV shows that Virginia does not want Alex to watch. She really does not want him to watch the simpsons, Cops and a bunch of others.

So, Virginia was at work one day, and we were watching Unbeatable Banzuki on G4 network. And the whole time we are watching it, they are advertising cops is up next. I love the show cops. It's one of my favorites on TV. Well I think that it's ok to watch lost of the time, even if Virginia doesn't.

I decide to let him watch it.

I also decide to not tell Virginia

Then I decide to hide it from her, and have Alex help me hide it from her.

We all know that this cannot end well don't we?

So, I get the bright idea that Alex can watch cops, but as soon as his mom comes home that he immediately changes the show to whatever is on food network. Alex is totally on board. We even have a few practice runs to make sure he knows what to do.

It's funny to see a 4 1/2 year old boy fumble for the remote and hurriedly change the channel when hearing "momma is home, momma is home!!!!!"

So i am using the vaccum and Virginia comes home from work and I turn to Alex and mouth the words "momma is home, momma is home!!!!!" he changes the channel and all is well. We have gotten away with the perfect crime!!!! Hahahaha, or so I had thought....

Well imagine my suprise when my wife came up to me and told me "Alex told me what you did". And I'm thinking "oh crap, what did I do?" and that's when I found out how hard my son had just thrown me under the bus

He had told his momma that he was watching Racheal Ray, but he had been watching cops, but daddy had told him to change the channel and tell momma that he had only been watching food network.

Can you believe that?? I had committed the perfect crime, but my boy ratted me out to his momma! Curses!

The moral here? Don't involve children in your devious plots, not if you want to get away with it that is.

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Movie Day Sunday Reviews

2010-01-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend I saw 2 movies. I saw Legion, and I saw the Tooth Fairy.

Legion is:
"A group of strangers in an out-of-the-way eatery who become the first line of defense when God, believing the human race is no longer worthy of Him, decides to end their existence. This motley crew's only spiritual ally is the archangel Michael" (http://www.hollywood.com/movie/Legion/3701688)

I should have known better. But the trailer for this pulled me in. It looked like a cool action movie with some over the top special effects. Lets sum it up like this: The special effects were not all that special, the action sequences were to short, the story had more holes then Swiss cheese and the acting was crap.

I am dumber for having seen this movie.

Then there is the Tooth Fairy:
"This family comedy following a star hockey player's (Dwayne Johnson) temporary transformation into a full-fledged tooth fairy as penalty for discouraging a young fan. Ashley Judd and Julie Andrews co-star" (http://www.hollywood.com/movie/The_Tooth_Fairy/3506271)

The commercials for this have been on for weeks and my son has been after me to go and see it. So it was Lucero family movie day and we went to see it. My question is that Dwayne Johnson learns all of these family lessons while being the Tooth Fairy, but then has this forgetful dust placed on him so he forgets all that he did while being a Tooth Fairy. What??? How the hell would he remember the lessons he learned, if he is forced to forget the whole experience???

This movie was about 30 minutes too long. My boy was telling me he wanted to go home with about 20 minutes left. He said he liked the movie, but it was too long. He was right.

Which movie was better? The Tooth Fairy. There were actually some really funny moments in this movie and it knew what its audience was. Legion however was a gigantic crap pile that I'm afraid I'll never be able to escape.

Want to see a good movie with action in it? Go see The Book of Eli. That was one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

The top things of 2000

2010-01-06T14:58:00.001-08:00

Because I am too lazy to do top 10 lists for all of this stuff, I'm doing several top 5 lists.

Here we go:

Top 5 Movies I saw in 2009

5: Gran Torino. I don't care when this movie came out, I saw it this year and it was nothing short of awesome. Clint Eastwod is the original bad ass and still is!

4: Taken. Liam Neeson was great in this movie about a guy who hears his daughter get kidnapped while on the phone with her . Then he goes and gets her back. See it. It's great

3: Ninja Assassin. You see the movie title. There better be ninja killing action. There had better be killin all over the place. This movie delivers all of that 20 times over with gratuitous amounts of blood.

2: Avatar. I didn't want to see this movie but my wife dragged me to it. I'm glad she did, liberal agenda politics aside this was a great example of movie making at it's finest.

1: District 9. You want a sci fi tale of aparteid? Have it Take place in South Africa. Great story, great visuals, great action. What puts this at the top is that this movie is fresh compared with most sci fi released in the past decade or so.

Top 5 in TV

5: Lost
4: Heroes
3: 24
2: Any cop or crime show like cops or Americas wildest police chases or SWAT
1: The Shield

Top 5 Music

5: Five Finger Death Punch: War Is the Answer
4: Kelly Clarkson: All I Ever Wanted. I know I'm gonna take a lot of crap for this one, but tough , I thought this was awesome.
3: Jace Everett: Bad Things. This is as close to country as I am gong to get.
2: Machine Head's cover version of Iron Maiden's Hallowed Be Thy Name
1: Opeth: Watershed

Ok, that's my list, what's some of the entertainment stuff you loved from 2009 ?

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The Trials of the Television

2010-01-05T14:38:00.001-08:00

My boy is spoiled. Not only does have an HD TV in his room, he has a DVD player and cable. Hell I didnt have a TV until I bought my own. In
this electronic age I've tried to give my boy more than I had wen I was a kid. In that I have succeeded. But material gains do not a good parent make.

To many people think that as long as you keep giving you are doing a good job as a parent, as long as you make your child feel good then all will be well with the world. Well that's a big fat load if crap.

Kids need discipline and boundries. That means rules and concequences if they break those rules. I'm not advocating taking a 2x4 upside your kids head because they spilled some juice on the carpet. I'm not against spanking but i have found that it's not really all that effective.

And so we return to the TV in question. My dear sweet sweet boy was being a royal pain in the butt and being very disobedient. He was being a smart ass and mocking towards his mother and I. The TV was taken away from him. Not for 1 day, not for 2 days, but "until further notice". Who knows how long he'll has to be good to get his beloved TV back.

Considering how good he's been since that day I don't know if I'm inclined to ever give it back.

Being a parent is hard sometimes! But it is so worth it !

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Christmas time: Reckanize!

2009-12-01T14:38:00.001-08:00

Well its that time of year. That time when people obsess over weather or not they have so many lights up that their house can be seen from space. If they can outspend others on their gift giving gluttony. If they can send cards to people they no longer even associate with. Tiz the season for excess. Nevermind what the real reason of Christmas is. Christmas has trancesnded into something else, into something bigger than all of us.

Christmas. It's a word. It's a word now that has been marginalized into a dollar amount. In fact the word itself in recent years has been unsuccessfully removed by such groups as the foul (fowl?) ACLU and other liberal groups.

I suppose that most people are fine with the celebration of generosity and family togetherness that is associated with the holiday. But think of this, do non Jews celebrate giving gifts for hannika? Do non Muslims celebrate ramedan? So by that thinking non-Christians have no reason to celebrate Christmas right? I mean the "Christ" in Christmas means Jesus Christ.

I think that thought process is why some groups try to minimalize the real meaning of Christmas and try and force "Holidays" down peoples throats. These people are as guilty of forcing thier beliefs down on others as they complian about religious groups doing to them. Arnt they in effect going door to door like Mormons and Jehovah witnesses peddling their non-belief systems?

To this is say come up with a separate holiday. separate from arbor day and let's call it "Holidaymas". And everyone, believer and non-believer alike can celebrate with their own gift giving ways.

Can't we all just get along?

(I love my grill)

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Thanks for giving me a grill!!!

2009-11-26T13:44:00.001-08:00

On this wonderful Thanksgiving day I am blessed with many things: a beautiful wife who so show puts up with all my crap, a son who somehow puts up with all my crap and friends who somehow put up with all my crap.

But today I am blessed with the wonderful grill which has brought many a fine breakfast, lunch and dessert. Today is no different as the grill has given me the juiciest tastiest turkey I have ever had.

Witness perfection:

Here is how it went down:

1 seven pound turkey breast
1 orange
1 pound of bacon
Various herbs salt and pepper

After combining everything cover the top with the bacon. It took about 2 1/2 hours to cook and when it was done it was AWESOME!!

Truly there is nothing the grill can't do. World peace is possible with the grill, it's that powerful. But I'm too selfish. I'm keepig my wonderful grill, with turkey this good, world peace can wait.

Happy thanksgiving all y'all !

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Examining Fighting & Hockey

2009-11-23T18:07:00.000-08:00

Do we need fighting in Hockey? To answer the question immediately, no we really don't NEED fighting in hockey, but I think that fighting makes hockey better.

First off, can we compare other sports being as tough as hockey? It's not even close. Sure there are some heavy hits on American football, but compared to hockey football players are nothing short of a bunch of pansies. Basketball? Players there get a hangnail and they are on the injured reserve for months. Golf? You aren't serious right? NASCAR? What's tough about sitting on your ass in a car? I do that everyday on the way to work.

No, the toughest atheletes are hockey players. So when there is all that manliness in one place something has to give right? OK, that's a fat load of BS, but it's all I got. It's like this: sometimes people just gotta beat the snot out of each other, and if it's allowed then it's gonna happen. Boxing, UFC, Bum fights, Fight Club (shhhh, don't talk about it) and all that exist because at humanities basic existence is the desire to see someone other than yourself suffer. What better way to make someone suffer than by knocking some of their teeth out?

I enjoy just about everything about hockey, including the fights. Don't take the fights away. Hell, then it would be ice capades with nets.

Alex in jump city

2009-11-21T11:40:00.001-08:00

Alex went to his friend Madison's B day party. This is him at jump city messin around

-isn't it great to be a kid?

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Help for gang members

2009-11-18T08:15:00.001-08:00

There are plenty of anti gang programs in the greater Los Angeles area. Are any of them doing any good? Maybe, maybe not. See the problem I have with gang members is not the drug dealing because if there was not a market for it, there would be no gangs selling drugs. I don't even have a problem with their initiating process and all that.

The thing I have a problem with is innocent victims. Gang members can't shoot straight. I mean come on look at the dumb ass way they hold a pistol, you can't have any accuracy holding a pistol sideways can you? And because of this they hit other people than their intended targets.

Sadly a high school girl was murdred in Long Beach, an infant was hit by a gang bullit and the list of dead go on and on. Anti gang intiatives do not seem to be working, so it's time to go a different direction. It's time to stop helping gang members and time to put an end to innocent victims.

Drastic times call for drastic measures. That's why I am proposing the Lou Lucero target shooting school. It's free for gang members. All they have to do is show their gang sign in the form of tattoo, signed form from their mother or their parole officer vouching for them. All others have to pay the standard entry fee. But if you are a gang member you need the most help in learning how to shoot straight. Just think about it, you gain street cred cause you took a rival gang member out, and you don't feel bad cause you mistakenly killed a kid or something like that.

"But Lou, won't these thugs now be able to shoot cops better"? Good question and I'm glad you asked it. As part of the Lou Lucero target shooting school, there will be money set aside for cops to be armed with better armor and with automatic weapons.

See everyone wins here.

I am a genius.

Dessert time (Thank you grill)

2009-11-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

It's been well documented by me how much I love the grill. Well we nought a new grill to go along with our new apartment and have been grilling up a storm. One of the early standouts has been V's grilled apple pie.

Check it out:

It's apples and apple pie stuff on top of pizza dough. And it was frickin fantastic! It partied on the grill for about ten minutes and then we let it cool down a little bit until it looked like this:

Looks good doesn't it? It tasted better!

Mark my words, the grill is so wonderful I'll find a way to love it more!

Countdown to Freedom/Slavery

2009-09-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

Its on damn it!

4 1/2 weeks until I am done with school. I remember not that long ago that i had a post on here that listed it at 12 weeks. I'm past halfway, i'm just 1 month out until I am free and I have a piece of paper that says I have a fancy city boy masters degree. It doesn't seem like that long to go, but with every passing day it seems like the hill to climb to the finnish gets steeper and the challenge gets harder.

So just 4 1/2 weeks until freedom, but also another 4 1/2 weeks until slavery. Wait, what? Huh? did that jackass just say freedom and slavery in the same sentence? Yup, he did! Why? because what is this piece of paper that says masters degree on it worth if i don't put it to use? I will become a slave to the job market and whatever it holds. I'm hoping to have a leg up on some job seekers with my fancy city boy paper, but time will tell.

Need to hire a masters graduate?

Stupid is as stupid DOESN"T do...

2009-09-18T12:46:00.000-07:00

My precious precious boy. He's at that stage where he knows all and isn't afraid to tell you. He'll ask you a question, and if he isn't satisfied with your answer he'll tell you that you are wrong.

Well a while back Virginia and I were noticing that he was calling things and people "stupid". We decided that it wasn't a nice thing to do and "stupid" moved to the list of banned words.

He is not real familiar with the whole list, because it mostly consists of words Daddy uses while watching hockey. I mean come on, you sports fans know what I'm talking about. The words you use when your team sucks and couldn't play themselves out of a paper bag. Or even better some jackass cuts you off in traffic and if you don't cuss them out this very minute you are SERIOUSLY GOING TO KILL SOMEONE RIGHT NOW DIE DIE DIE!!!!! Whoa, settle down Danzig...

But you get the point right? Well imagine my surprise when last week someone cut me off in traffic and came really close to hitting me after i have picked up the boy. My response was"YOU STUPID MOTHER F____R, F__K YOU!!!" Now I will admit that this wasn't my most eloquent response to a given situation, especially with a 4 year old sitting in the back of the truck. All of a sudden I hear:"Awwwww Dad, you can't say that word, its naughty! When we get home you are going to stand in the corner!" Which naughty word was he referring to? I asked him if "stupid" was the naughty word. halfway through my question i get: "Dad! Don't say that. You're gonna get a spanking!!"

What could i do? I was caught. I said it. I'm just glad he didn't catch the rest of my naughty words. He even caught Virginia at dinner last night. So just a friendly word of warning: Don't say "stupid" around my son or face the consequences. Feel free to say any other word, just not that one.

You have been warned!

Bananna Bread, Prepare to Die!

2009-09-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

For my wife its officially fall. Now I have no clue when the actual date is because here in California we really have no transition of seasons. Its either "Really Frickin Hot" "Hot" or "Not as Hot". That's it. That's all we have. But when its fall somehow my wife is transformed into a baking machine. And she's damn good at it. She popped out some banana bread to murder for the other day.

Now I'm not one to usually eat banana's in stuff. I like bananas. Its just I have banana flavored things. They taste gross. But her banana bread is filled with good banana flavor, its moist, and almost kinda heavy. Nothing kills fancy breads more then dryness. I mean come on who wants to put dry crappy bread in their mouths? Might as well just put a hand full of sawdust in there and chew on it.

But anyway, she made two beautiful bundles of bread. one she gave away, and the other Alex and I demolished. Poor Virginia only got two small pieces and we killed the rest of it. Oh well snooze, you lose.

Since it is baking season I see zucchini bread in my future.....

So in the famous words of Inigo Montoya: Banana Bread, You Killed my father (not really), Prepare to die (cause I'm gonna eat you)! OK that's lame, how about this:

Mr banana bread, with an open heart and an empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of my uncle: Allez cuisine!

OK, this is it I swear: Banana bread: Get in my belly!

The Year of the Grill

2009-09-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

Not the first time I've wrote about the grill this year, and probably won't be the last.

This past labor day weekend it was Meatstravaganza 3. The original Meatstravaganza was supposed to be an annual thing on the July 4th holiday, but the very next weekend suddenly there was Meatstravaganza 2 that just appeared and took over. Well since then there has been plenty of grill action, but nothing approaching the grandeur of a Meatstravaganza until this past weekend.

Let me set the stage for you:

Salmon
Lobster Tail
Shrimp
Hot Dogs

Now my friends if that's not Meatstravaganza i don't know what is. Lets start from the bottom of the list and work our way up.

Hot Dogs. There were kids there and they were hungry too. So we grilled them some hot dogs plain and simple. NEXT!

The shrimp were skewered and given a generous covering of Cajun seasoning for their trouble. The thing is that they were done on the grill way before anything else. So I took them inside and when the Salmon and Lobster were done, they went back on the grill along with a coating of BBQ sauce. I gotta say, they were pretty good that way.

The lobster tail was simply set on a cedar plank, put on the grill and it cooked there for about 25 minutes. After that I took the shells off and everyone sent their lobster to a swimming pool filled with melted butter and then ate them up. They actually came out pretty good on the grill. One not about the cedar plank is that you are supposed to soak them for 2 hours before they are used. I soaked mine in the kitchen sink and weighed them down so they would stay submerged.

Then we have the Salmon. This was also placed on the cedar plank and then was covered with Dijon mustard and then brown sugar. Couldn't be more simple than that could it? About 25 minutes later it was done. The flavors in this were outstanding. However I'm more partial to my grilled salmon actually being grilled. I like the crispy outside and the juicy inside. So that being said, the Salmon tasted great, but next time I won't be using the cedar plank.

And there you have it: Meatsravaganza 3 The Year of the Grill.

Bonus Round:

The grillin wasn't done that day. Dessert was also from the beautiful grill, the giver of cooked meats, the sustainer of life, and now the benevolent sender of sweet treats.

Take 4 good sized peaches, cut in half, cut those pieces in half so they look triangle like. Throw them all in a bowl, a little canola oil, a little almond and vanilla extract, a little brown sugar and off to the grill you go! Grill all three sides, don't burn them! Just grill enough to get grill marks. And then after they are grilled put a few pieces in a bowl and top with vanilla ice cream and whatever else you want and enjoy! These were a HIT! I'll make these again for sure.

Dear grill, is there nothing that you can't make better??

Man Up Already

2009-09-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm playing golf on Monday and I'm on what I'll call the "back 9". I play at a 9 hole course, and playing it a 2nd time counts as the back nine so I can get 18 holes of golf in. Well anyway I see that there is a big wait. There is 1 guy ahead of us and he was slow enough, but imagine my surprise when I saw a group of three people over on the ladies tees on hole 3. I'm thinking OK, these chicks are going to slow everyone up cause they were laughing and giggling and carrying on like a bunch of schoolgirls.

FLAG ON THE PLAY: they were a group of boys. I'm placing them somewhere in the 17 or 18 year old range. They aren't young enough to be kids. And they certainly were not girls. So what the hell were they doing hitting off the ladies tees? I mean most ladies I see play don't hit off the ladies tees. Let me explain how the hole is set up. You tee up, hit over a river, then if you hit your ball in the river enough you go on the other side of the river and drop the ball over there and continue on to the hole. I've done that plenty of times and sacrificed many a golf ball to the river golf gods. Listen, i do my part by contributing many a ball there. So I figured that these girly-men had sacrificed a few balls (no, not those ones sickos, but we are getting to that...) and were just continuing on the other side.

They weren't doing that either. On the next hole where there is no river, no excuse and nowhere to hide, the three pansies teed up on the ladies tees and proceeded to embarrass themselves further with their pathetic golf swings and golf shots. Hey if i embarrass myself with a pathetic golf shot, at least my golf swing looks damn impressive. Each time one of those chicks, i mean boys, i mean, oh I don't know what the hell i mean. I time one of them hit a shot, they all giggled and laughed about it. Lets see, when Jan (the dude i was playing with) or i hit a crappy shot, the proper response is ridicule from those witnessing your embarrassment.

Hole after slow going hole they kept up this act. Until finally i screamed at them and called them a derogatory name regarded for a certain part of the female anatomy that begins with a P and ends with a Y. Oh and you can call a cat this word too! My remarks did not bother them in the least. But I finished up my round of golf with a smile on my face knowing that In wasn't the worst golfer on the course that day. And I went home with more balls than I arrived with. YEAH!

Man up pansies! I know golf isn't the testosterone fueled sport that say, oh HOCKEY is, but dudes don't hit their balls off the ladies tees damn it!

Dear Grill, Oh how I love you!

2009-08-30T09:19:00.001-07:00

Seriously, is there nothing that the Grill cannot do? Yeah it can do burgers, hot dogs pork chops and all that. But y’all I have also listed here that the grill can also do pizza, and pork loins, and ribs and veggies.

Guess what else the grill can do? Dessert and Salad! No no no, don’t go away, that isn’t a typo. I really did type dessert and salad. And to top it all off, the dessert in question is banana splits, and the salad in question is whole pieces of romaine lettuce.

You may say: “Lou, you lyin dog, ain’t no way you do ‘nanna splits and city boy salad on the grill’. You very well may say that, but I have done it, and it works. Now come on. If i say its true on the grill, you can count on that being the truth. I may lie about some other stuff, but the grill, oh no, the grill is sacred!

Banana Splits:

Take a banana, split down one side of the skin, and the without taking the skin off, put some butter and brown sugar on it wrap that bad boy in some foil and put on the hot grill. Let the grill do its magic, and then take out of the foil and put in a bowl (with the skin on) and top with ice cream and whatever else you want. And then eat that thing up!

Salad:

Take big leaves of romaine lettuce and put a very light coating of olive oil on them, and then you can either do garlic powder or wait till they are done and add garlic (or really whatever the hell you want to do, the key here is do it how it tastes good to you) and then place down on the grill. The lettuce will wilt, and will brown. That’s good. Flip over and grill the other side to your “doneness” level and then sprinkle with your desired finishers. And there you have grilled salad. Its the perfect compliment to any other grilled stiff you have going on.

Oh, I can and have grilled fries and fish sticks before, but that’s another blog.

If Virginia would let me take another wife, and it was legal in the state of California, oh yes, i would certainly marry the grill, because i LOVE the grill!

BOOTY SNAKES: BEWARE!

2009-08-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

What happens when you are harrassing your kid and they want you to stop? they make something up right?

Here is how it went down: I told Alex I was going to bite his arms off. So without missing a beat he looks up and says "I wouldn't do that dad, cause the booty snakes will get you".

What the hell are booty snakes? His explained that booty snakes would eat me and put me I their bellies if I didn't stop. So I stopped. I mean who wants to be eaten by booty snakes?

Today he informs me that the booty snakes need to be dead and he is gonna kill them on his gun bike, all while wearing his fireman hat.

So just be careful out there, or the booty snakes will get you!

The Story of P90X and Lou

2009-08-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

I did it. I finished P90X. And I gotta tell you it was difficult. There are days that I wanted to quit, there are days when I could have worked out harder, but I did it and i finished it!

P90 What?
What the hell is P90X? It a series of workout DVDs And as is the case with everything that has the letter "X" in it the "X" is for extreme. Its billed as an extreme workout and they aren't kidding. But for those who know me know that the only extreme thing I've ever committed to is maybe a buffet or 6 hours of Xbox. 90 days is a long time to be working out. How did Fatty McFatovich commit to and complete an "X" style workout?

The Holocaust of Exercise
Well as is the case with everything there is a story behind this. Exercise has never been important to me in my entire life. Up until a few years ago exercise was something that stupid people with nothing better to do did. Or in the last few years of my life something to be endured if you had to. The most strenuous exercise I ever did was 12 ounce Labatt Blue curls (mmmm Canadian beer, how I miss you). Sure I did yard work type exercise like mow the lawn or split wood or any of that kind of crap, but that was because it was work that needed to be done. Not because I wanted to.

Good Beer and a Bottle of Sauce
And then there was food. My sweet sweet love affair with food. Between the yummy creamy pasta sauces, and the alcohol and the multitudes of meat, I never met a dinner I did not like. I indulged a lot and often. Believe me, its not an accident that I became this fat guy. Over the years through my actions I created him. My belly is the gut that pasta built. So you see, lack of exercise and plenty of eating and you get FAT. And I'm not one of these people that's going to blame me being fat on someone else. That's a big pile of crap and everyone knows it. Its not McDonald's fault that I ate food from there. I choose to life the fork and spoon to my mouth, not anyone else.

The Legend of Uncle Bobby
In the year 2000 something happened that would have a sever impact on me later in life. My good friend Uncle Bobby died of a heart attack in his sleep. Bob was 49 when he died. Bob smoke and drank and ate, just like me (except for the smoking part, damn that stuff is nasty...). I was devastated at the time because no one that I had really ever lost anyone close to me. What i didn't know at the time is the effect it would have on me later.

Meet Virginia
Then I met Virginia. What an awesome day. She changed my life. For the better even. Can you believe that she was horrified that when I would cook I would basically deep fry everything? What did she mean that bologna wasn't supposed to be deep fried?? Well she nudged me slowly towards working out and eating better.

The Futility of Diet and Exercise
There for a while I did really well. I worked out hard and I ate like a frickin bird. Life sucked! I was miserable. I wasn't eating and I was pushing myself. Virginia was working out with me and that sort of kept me honest. Sometimes she would yell at me because I would be just sitting there. So imagine what happened when My son was born and she wasn't working out with me anymore? I would just sit there and watch TV and not work out.

I need to sit and Rest, hand me a doughnut...
So I had lost a bunch of weight, and then my son was born. I more or less stopped working out and started eating again and the weight started to come back on. I got to a point where I was getting winded walking up a flight of stairs. I didn't want to play with my son because I would get to tired. Anything activity based I would take a pass on or figure a way to get out of it.

The Epiphany
Then something weird happened. I saw the P90X infomercial. No i didn't order it, but I liked what I saw. I thought "I wish I could do that" and didn't think much about it. But whenever i would see it on TV, i would watch the whole thing. And this is the part that is going to sound stupid to some people. I had a dream about Uncle Bobby. And this is the freaky part, in the dream Bobby was me. It scared the living crap out of me. I woke up scared to death and the TV was on, the P90X infomercial was on. It was time to change.

Stupid Food Tasting So Good
And so now you know the reason for my plunge into P90X. But the funny thing is that I wake up every day at 4:30am on purpose and work out for an hour. I did 90 days of this. However that wasn't the hard part. The hard part is the part that i am still, and probably will still struggle with for a long time. And that is food. I stick to my nutrition plan pretty good during the week, but when the weekend comes for some stupid reason I throw nutrition logic out the window and try to run over it a few times. I'm getting better, but like I said it will need work,

Hark, i See Results!
But all of this working out and nutrition stuff is for nothing is there ain't any results. And here they are. In 90 days I went from 360 pounds (damn I'm fat) down to a slim and trim 335 (damn, I'm still fat, but less fat...). I lost 25 pounds. I went down a pant size. I gained a lot of muscle, ask my wife, she now knows where to go for the "gun show". And I have energy to burn. I play with my son more. I walk up and down stairs. I just do more of everything. And because it was my fault that I got into this mess, its also my fault that I'm getting out of it!

You Didn't do it alone
I had plenty of help. I have my dear wife Virginia. Without her nothing good is possible. I can get into evil all by myself and I'm quite good at it, but when it comes to doing good, i need her help! I also had the support of my sister Karen. She would call me and i would call her and we would push each other. She's doing a program called Turbo Jam While I'm doing P90X. We kept each other motivated. Then I had the support of the "Average Joe's" . They are a online forum where like minded P90X people get kinda chat with each other. Without all of this support my journey would have been much more likely to fail. So part of my success is due to all of these people. And then there is Alex, my boy. He inspires me every day. And sometimes he would work out with me, running and kicking and doing yoga. He along with Virginia are my inspirations in life.

Geez Lou, does this damn story ever end?
Yeah it ends. But guess what? I'm still doing it. Even though 90 days and my P90X is over I'm still working out. I created my own program. I've merged P90X, P90X+ and Tony Horton's One on One workouts to create my next 90 day Program called Lou90X. I'm still working on the Nutritional aspect. But I figure as long as I keep at it and don't quit, someday I'll be at a respectable healthy weight. And when that day comes its time to go motorcycle shopping baby!!!

Pizza: Is there anything the Grill Can’t make better?

2009-08-02T18:58:00.001-07:00

How often do you think of taking a traditional food and turning it upside down? We have grilled pizza before with good but uneven results. We placed the dough right on the grill. And while it was delicious, the cooking was uneven because it seems that every grill has hotspots. And the gas grills here at the place where we live are no different.

Well my dear wife found a grill specific pizza stone. And we tried it out today. We got some fresh pizza dough and some fresh veggies for toppings and went for it!

The first pizza was, lets call it an experiment. It stuck to the stone and was a SOB to get off the stone. I had to take the Pizza spatula that came with the stone and scrape that darn pizza off the stone.

Look at the pizza spatula. Love it. It is a force to be reckoned with. It is so cool it is almost self aware. You could backhand someone across the whole head with it and have left over spatula! Can you imagine the beatin i would have got as a kid if this thing had been around? I’m glad it wasn’t around then, but I'm glad its around now! Well anyway this awesome tool took care of the stuck on pizza dough.

The next pizza to go on worked much better because we put a little oil on the bottom of the dough. It finally worked. The pizza’s were great! We made some veggie pizza’s some chicken barbeque pizza’s and pepperoni pizza. This was such a success that we are thinking of making this pizza stone work more for us. I mean come on, is there nothing that the grill can’t make better? I mean it does the regular stuff like burgers, and pork chops and stuff. And remember Meatstravaganza 1 and 2? And now this?

Grill I love you!

12 Short Weeks of Eternity

2009-07-31T14:23:00.000-07:00

12 weeks to go. Just 12 weeks until it is all over. 12 weeks until a new adventure begins. What the hell am I talking about? In 12 weeks I'll be done with school. I will be an official Masters Degree Graduate. It seems weird to me now that this is where I would end up thinking back to how my college career started.

I started going part time to Finger Lakes Community College in the mid 90's. I had no idea what for at the time. But my motivator was working in a dead end factory and the only way to get out of it was through school. I saw people in that factory who were true lifers there. And not that I'm baggin on anyone who wants that (yea i am) but I didn't want that for me.

After my time at FLCC was over I was the owner of my very own Associates Degree in Criminal Justice. The idea at that time was to become a police officer and because of one of my teachers there was interest in me, and I had inquired about opportunities in Canada and because of my grades both sides had interest.

But that's not the path that I took. I moved to California to start a life with the wonderful Miss Virgina. And a few years later started school once again to get my bachelors Degree in Business Management. And once I finished that i transitioned right into my Masters of business Administration program that i am set to finish in 12 short weeks.

12 weeks does not sound like a long time, but to someone who has been going to school for as long as I have, 12 weeks is an eternity. I haven't done it by myself. I have had support along the way. But by far the biggest support, and the person who has given the most has been Virginia. I have had some form of homework everyday for the past few years. There are times when I wanted nothing to do with school, she pushed me. She spends nights alone because I am working. My success belongs to her and I thank her for it.

So at the end of 12 weeks I'll be on another adventure: finding a way to make that piece of paper pay for itself. Wish me luck, I'll need it!

Sleep Deprevation affects Everything else

2009-07-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

Sleep. What a lame topic for a blog eh?

Well tough. I'm tired, I'm cranky and I don't care. This week I haven't got to bed much before midnight. Well back a few months ago that would have been fine. I was getting up around 6 in the morning, and I could stay up and play video games all night and do homework to my hearts content!

Well that ain't my schedule anymore. I am getting up everyday at 4:30 am so I can workout. I need to workout in the morning so I can have some time with my family in the afternoon. So if I am up past midnight 4:30 comes up pretty damn quick. So by the time I lay down and finally go to sleep, I'm getting about 4 hours of sleep a night.

That's not enough. It would be enough if i wasn't working out. I wouldn't need the extra rest. But I am working out and I'm old and fat and blah blah blah. Bottom line is that for what is going on in my life I need to get more rest.

So when I don't get enough sleep everything else suffers for it. I don't get as good a workout as I should, it takes me longer to do homework and I'm cranky to my wife and boy. I don't like that. I could sit here and type and whine about it, but I know that I have to get my butt to bed earlier.

WAAAAA I'm tired.

I'm done.

waaa

No really, i'm done.

How could it be Meatstravaganza 2 already?

2009-07-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

In a previous blog aboutn the July 4th Meatstravaganza I worte how delicious all of that smoked meat was from the grill. And I also told you that Meatstravaganza would be an annual event on July 4th for the Lucero clan. I mean come on what better way to celebrate the birth of this country, what the country is really about, than with the consumption of meat?

Now I know that ain't jiving with you vegetarian types, but a little later I got y'all covered too...

OK, so we move to 1 week from the strat of all this wonderfulness that is the annual meatstravaganza and what happens? We did it again, we did Meatstravaganza 2. However we mixed it up and did it a tad different. We did chicken again, but we also cooked an entire pork tenderloin on the grill. And and for you veggetarians, we did a steam packet of white onions and asperagus.

How was the meat prepared? The chicken had some cajun seasoning sprinkled on it. The port tenderloin came with a chipotle flovoring already on it. And the veggies had some seasonings or something sprinkled on it by the wonderful Virginia, and she put some garlic i there. Done. That's it. No more food preperation. This time the grill was prepared. I put two pieces of aluminum foil on the grill, and prepared the smoker box like last time (soaked the chips for a half hour in apple juice, place chips in box, place box on coals). Then I sprayed some cooking spray on the foil to prevent stickage, closed the lid on the grill, and walked away for an hour.

How does cooking get any easier? When I came back the chicken was perfect, the veggies were done, but the pork tenderloin needed a little bit more. I took the pork, removed the foil, and placed it directly on the grill for 5 minutes and then removed.

We still have left overs. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind doing this more often. The meat is delicious, and it helps with other meals during the week if we have leftovers.

Meatstravaganza 2. Love it!

The Misery of Others, its funny!

2009-07-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when we ourselves are miserable that humor is the last thing that we think of?

However when we see someone elses misery that we think its funny?

Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsEZ2lpM0Yw

Is that not hillarious? How else can you explain the poularity of America's Funniest Home Videos? Every funny video on there is of someone getting hurt. Doesn't matter if its some dumbass skateboarder faceplanting on concrete, or if some kid is hitting his dad in the nuts. We laugh.

The reason I'm thinking about this is that lately my son's favorite show is Wipeout. If you haven't seen it, its a show about people going through an obsticle course that is designed for them to fail at it and fall into either mud/and or water. Its funny. Virginia thinks its stupid, but she's wrong, its funny. The boy can watch this show 24 hours a day if we would let him. And all it is is people falling down and sometimes getting hurt, but always looking rediculous when they do it. now people, that's entertainment!

How say you? Misery: Funny, or not funny?

Meatstravaganza!

2009-07-04T18:14:00.001-07:00

YUUUUUUUM!!!!

Today I celebrated the birth of this great country by cooking delicious dead animal. Today is what should be the beginning of the annual Lucero MEATSRAVAGANZA! All independence days should be celebrated with the consuming of mass quantities of meat. On today’s menu:

Baby Back Ribs, 4 half racks
Chicken, 4 complete thigh pieces
Kielbasa sausage, 1 whole link
White corn, 4 ears
Macaroni salad
Broccoli ‘Slaw

Four of the Six items were completely cooked on the grill. But before they went on the grill the wonderful miss Virginia mad a rub for the meat. In the rub was: Cumin, Paprika and Chipotle Chili powder. Take the rub mix, and well rub it all over the meat.

Here is where it gets smoky! We bought a little smoker. Its just a metal container that you put wood chips into and place on top of the coals of the grill. We used apple-wood chips and then soaked them in apple juice. To get this show going we lit the grill, place the smoker box on the coals and then place the grill grates on, and then placed the ribs and chicken on the grill. 30 minutes later I turned over the ribs and chicken, and then put the sausage and corn on, turned those after 15 more minutes and then put Carolina BBQ sauce all over the meat, let cook for another 5 minutes and then took it all off the grill 15 minutes after that.

Holy yummy cow what a difference the smoker box makes. It made everything awesome. The smoker box was just a thing we picked up on a whim, but I’m glad we did. It will be an important tool for the next annual Lucero MEATSTRAVAGANZA!!!!!

Revolving Sushi?

2009-06-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

After seeing some hot Robot on Robot action (i'm talking about the new transformers movies you pervs!) I went to Kura Sushi (http://www.kurasushi.com/). It was told to me that it was revolving sushi bar. I didn't know what the hell that meant so I jumped at the chance to go.

The concept is simple enough, there is a conveyor belt that moves small plates of sushi in front of you to pick up and eat. There are all kinds of choices and one of the first things you notice is that different items are on different colored plates. The different colored plates are how the item is priced.

On this day i went with the squid salad the Godzilla roll, Crispy shrimp roll, Seared Salmon roll, the Salmon eggs and the mussels in the shell. I did not have anything that was bad, infact it was all delicious. I'm still not up for eating raw fish, although the seared salmon was pretty close to being raw.

If you are up for sushi and in the mood for something different, try rotating sushi, its yummy!

What's on for dinner?

2009-06-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

I'm a doofus. But i'm a fun loving doofus and because of this I've decided to share with all y'all what's been on the menu recently just for the hell of it. The first item to tell you about is the fancy dinner that V made and I know i'm gonna catch hell for messing it up, but we had it a week or so ago. This picture here is asparagus with onions and lemon zest. And let me tell you the lemon zest really brightens up the dish and intensifies the flavor. I used lemon zest in some wacky cauliflower dish that I made a few weeks ago and the zest really does bring a whole new world to flavors. Then there was the cous cous. It had cranberries in it. And I've had cous cous once before and really liked it, but this one was good, but I like my rice and rice type products a little wetter than this was, even though i was assured that this was the way it was supposed to be served. If that is the case, i'll take it the wrong way please. And then there was the chicken. It was dang good! It had, check this out, a cranberry gravy! GRAVY!!!!! For the love of all things holy, gravy makes everything better, the only thing that could be the pinnacle of all food would be bacon gravy with bacon pieces in that gravy. Soon after consuming the bacon gravy, (the gravy covering more bacon of course) I would die, but that would be some awesome yummy death. Woops, got a little sidtracked. Anyway, the chicken was good eats. The gumbies=good eats, and the cous cous=pretty decent eats.

The next thing to talk about are V's southwest bar-b-q bacon cheeseburgers. These arn't actually all that bad for you cause I knew what you were thinking "Hey Lou, I thought you were supposed to be eating good and all that". Well let me tell you about these burgers. For one it was a turkey burger, not beef. For two the bacon was baked in the oven and not fried on the stove, for three the onion rings were baked in the over and not deep fried, and three the bun was whole wheat, and 4 the cheese was light cheese, and 5 the mayo used was light mayo!!!! So there. This is almost a veggie burger for how health concious it is. Anyway this was a damn good burger. the assembly process is as follows:

Bottom bun that has been grilled

Mustard

Pickle Slice

Turkey Burger Patty

Light Kraft Cheese
Bar-b-q sauce

Baked Onion Rings

Light Mayo

Top grilled Bun

That makes for a pretty tasty dinner. Now I couldn't eat something like this every night, but I'm saying every once in a while is OK.

One mornig I got the hankerin for eggs. I love eggs. I could eat them every day. So one moring I got the Idea to make some with some veggies in it and went from there. My list of ingredients were as follows:

2 tablespoons of oil

3 eggs, scrambles with a few shakes of cajun seasoning

a good handfull of sliced mushrooms

a small handfull of chopped green onions

1 slice of lite cheese

Here is how you put this together. Put the oil in the pan and throw all the veggies in it. When the veggies are done to your desired consistancy take them out. I'm not a fan of putting the eggs in with the veggies, if i am in a hurry i'll do it, but its not how i like it. if you do, well then....

Anyway, after taking the veggies out, put the eggs in the pan and cooked the scrambled goodness until they are don enough for you. When done put on the plate and place the cheese on top, and then top with your veggies and then sit down and enjoy!

All yummy eats.

These may not be the best pictures ever, but I think that they get the point across.

Dang these dishes were good.

What is this thing?

2009-06-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend i went hiking with V and Alex and as we are going along out of the corner of my eye i spot a building. Now if you weren't paying attention you would miss it, or if it was later in the season there would be so much green stuff growing that it wouldn't even be able to be seen.

This is what I saw:

What is this thing?

The building has 4 walls made of concrete blocks. There is no way to get in, and I presume no way to get out. The roof has had some recent repairs, but other than that its a free standing building in the middle of no where with no way into it or out of it.

Could it be something sinister like dead body storage? Or something purely innocent like..... well i can't think of anything innocent that this would be used for.

I reminds me of the Edgar Allen Poe: Cask of Amontillado where the main character walls someone up in concrete for transgressions against him. Do we have a similar situation here or just ...well something else?

Your turn, you tell me, What is it?

Face Off: Dave Letterman versus Sarah Palin

2009-06-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

If you were asleep for the last two weeks you know what the title of this blog is referring to.

For those that have been in a coma for the last few weeks lets recap shall we?

Alrighty Dave Letterman has his little show that's been on for a few years and he makes jokes on his show. Its no secret that he's a dirty hippie liberal. He makes jokes at the expense of republicans all the time. Its what he does. So he makes a joke about Sarah Palin who is the Republican governor from Alaska and her daughter who attended a Yankee game in NY. The joke was about the Yankees player Alex Rodriguez knocking up Palin's daughter. I heard the joke, it wasn't funny to me, but Dave Letterman isn't my cup of tea.

Now here is the "big deal": Palin's daughter that attended the game is 14. Any impregnating is of a 14 year old in NY is statutory rape. But here's the thing, I know Dave is a liberal, but do I think he's make rape jokes on his show? Considering the fallout I'm not so sure. There was a lot of attention from this and his ratings did go up. If this was a calculated move on Dave's part he initially succeeded and then failed.

You see he fully apologized last night. Why this about face? Did he have a change of heart? Was he remorseful? I don't think so. Advertisers were planning on pulling out of the show. And that means a loss of revenue. Dave won't allow that because he's a businessman and money is important. If he was sincere he would have made the real apology last week when it mattered. To me this apology is as calculated as it looks and is just to appease advertisers.

Is Palin innocent in this? No, she's a politician and does what politicians do best, raises positive awareness about herself and demonizes those against her. Instead of focusing on real issues, this is the kind of crap that politicians love. Now if she had been sincere in wanting this to just go away she would have left it alone and let the story die a quick death.

There are no innocents here except the 14 year old girl and surprisingly enough Alex Rodriguez. He did the right thing, he just let it go.

But lets be real people, at the base of all this backlash and false indignation is just a plain and simple tasteless joke. A simple joke people? That's what all the outrage is about? Dave has been doing his act for a long time and the ratings show that while he has an audience, the majority do not care for it. Do we live in a society where we have to start censoring jokes? if a joke is bad, it doesn't get laughs and we move on to the next joke. Simple as that. I've heard some truly tasteless jokes in my time and some were funny and some were not. That's it.

There was a lot of outrage here for nothing.

Who wins this face off? Sarah Palin. She came off looking like a mother protecting her child. And Letterman came off looking like an insensitive jerk. This was the best PR Palin has got since she came into National public life during the presidential campaign. And the best part about it was that she owes it all to a person who could not hate republicans and what they stand for more.

P90X Day 30 results from a not as fat as before guy

2009-06-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

OK its been 30 days, and I'm a bit disappointed in my results. I only lost 10 pounds. I thought it would be more. However I'm not going to get to down on myself as there has been a lot of new muscle definition that I can see, and my wife says there is a lot more where I can't see. Still i thought it would be more. I guess my vacation eating program of eating anything killed my diet. But I'm not going to whine about that to much. I'm going to have days where I eat "bad" foods. But so long as most of my days are eating "good" foods then I should be OK.

Positives from my first thirty days:

I Did a real push up the other day, not the cheater ones on the knees that I have been doing the whole time, but the real deal. I was stoked about that.
The meal plan. I'm not ever really that hungry so that makes it easy to follow.
The workouts for the most part are fun and as challenging as you make them.
My energy level. I have never had this much energy and felt this good throughout the day.

The negatives:

I thought I'd lose more than 10 pounds, bleahhh.
Yoga. Still hate it. Its still not my friend. And I curse a lot while doing it. If i could find where yoga lives, I'd stalk yoga and assassinate it in its sleep.

What have I learned in 30 days?

I have learned that working out and eating right is not a quick fix like a lot of other alternative methods and crazy ass diets. Yeah 10 pounds may not be a lot, but its 10 pounds less then where I started from. And I'm stronger than I used to be. I can really see the difference in my arms, and that means that I'll be able to really drive a golf ball further than people are used to.

I'm still enjoying the program and the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. I actually like the way I feel instead of being a persistant negativity monger. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a neo-hippie optimist or anything. I'm not finding trees to hug during lunch (although i would love to hug a tree with a chainsaw.....), but overall i just feel good. And when it all comes down to it, that's as important as any reason to continue.

Rockin Baja Lobster

2009-05-31T20:15:00.001-07:00

The Lucero Clan is in San Diego for the weekend. We are doing the USS Midway tour and the San Diego Zoo. A busy few days for sure. But what would we have to eat? Well after we went to tour the USS Midway we went to Rockin Baja Lobster in old town San Diego.

After deciding that I didn’t want the lobster taquitos and burrito, cause I didn’t want Mexican food, i went ahead and ordered the fajitas. In the fajitas were chicken, carne asada, and shrimp. And for veggies there were onions, peppers and tomatoes. Everything was grilled to perfection. Nothing was overdone, and everything was equally seasoned. Add these with the tortillas with the spicy honey butter and you have quite a meal. But also I got a ceaser salad to go along with it. These fajitas were as good as they look. The thing with fajitas is that if you are going to have more than 1 type of meat in there sometimes things get over or undercooked. That was not the case here. I’ve had better fajitas than this, but it hasn’t happened that often. I’d rate these on a fajita scale of 7.5 out of 10

V ordered the tacos. She had a “Dirty Taco” which was basically the carnitas taco, and she had the “Big Boss Taco” which is lobster in a batter and then fried. Per V and a direct quote they were “AWESOME”.

They also have a chips and salsa bar here and its basically as many tortilla chips as you want and as much salsa as you want. She shared my salad and when we have eaten at the Newport Beach location and the salad has been equally as good.

The one thing I really liked was that when we got there Alex was really hungry. So the went and got his order underway quickly. And before V and I even ordered he was scarfing down his Mac & Cheese with fries.

Service was OK, but extra points for them getting Alex’s food there ASAP. If i had to rate this place I give it a 7 out of ten. And that’s pretty good.

We’ll eat here again, but in Newport, closer to home.

The Bravery of Insects and the Stupid

2009-05-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Ever notice that most insects have little or no fear? Does an Ant run away when you are about to squash him, or nuke him with a magnifying glass? Nope. Then think about this, do stupid people get out of the way when someone is about to squash them? Nope. Often stupid people will lean into impending doom. The reason I say this is because I saw a picture on the Internet (www.failblog.org) where a NASCAR vehicle was airborne and the limited of brain fans were actually leaning towards their death as the car approached them. Not a one was trying to get out of the way or be doing anything that resembled evasive actions. Brave, but stupid.

Now consider people that know better and would rather put off death for another day. Some of them people would be walking on the stupid people to try and get away. Now consider their insect counterparts. When have you seen a cockroach that doesn't know fear? See a cockroach knows that you want to kill it. Not so with other insects. Spiders (technically not an insect) doesn't like you, but he does not seem to think that your objective is to murder him. The cockroach knows. And the cockroach runs.

Most insects and stupid people go charging right into an unknown territory like they own the place. Cockroaches and smart people don't. For they seem to know that doom is around the corner, and they expect to meet it really soon and tentatively go into the new area trying to dodge the big fist of doom trying to smite them.

So what the hell am i really saying? Most insects are like NASCAR fans, to dumb to know better. Smart people are like cockroaches, they do know better and act like they know better.

Which group do i fall under? Hell i should be a NASCAR fan....

Which group do you fall under? Are you a cockroach, or a dumb Ant?

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted!

2009-05-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

Its almost time. Time for another (another would imply multiple would'nt it? but that ain't true) Lucero family vacation. Where is the Lucero clan going you ask? Why we are going all the way to San Diego! Yes world famous San Diego, famous for being right next to Tijuana Mexico! OK, so San Diego is actually really famous for having both the gigantic San Diego Zoo and for Sea World, home of Shamu (not Shamwow, that would be creepy). And we are going there!

The three of us (Me V and Alex) are going to drive down there and spend a few days visiting the Zoo and the USS midway (go to www.midway.org) and just chillin in the neighborhood. I'm excited about seeing the Midway, its an aircraft carrier and you are supposed to be able to get into the actual aircraft. That's gonna be awesome.

The Zoo will be an adventure all to itself. It really is gigantic, and when V and I went there many many years ago we didn't see the whole thing because it was so big. So we'll have to hit certain parts that Alex would like to see and then just call it a day.

Oh, and Jan, don't worry I'll be taking Tony/P90X with me so i can work out in the hotel, and V will let me know if i'm about to eat anything bad, she'll say "Tony wouldn't like that".

If the hotel has WiFi, maybe i'll blog from our vacation if you lot are lucky enough!

The Healing Power of Bacon

2009-05-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

On Monday V, Alex and myself went to a memorial day party. Being the party girl that she is, V decided to take an appetizer. No i don't know if this was a requirement of the party, but I'm thinking that even if it wasn't, she would have done so anyway.

This is where our story goes from OK to AWESOME! She decided to make Bacon wrapped shrimp and kielbasa. YEAHHH!!!! Shrimp and Kielbasa are good by themselves, but when you wrap them with yummy crispy wonderful life giving bacon, it just makes everything better.

OK, check this out. She half cooked the bacon, and then wrapped it around raw shrimp and cut up kielbasa chunks. Then I took them out and finished them up on the grill. Now for the grill i actually set it on medium heat. And by doing this the shrimp were fully cooked and the bacon became nice and crispy. And if you guessed me sampling one right from the grill you were absolutely right. While I'm doing this V makes a dipping sauce out of regular BBQ sauce and some citrus-y stuff.

On to the party. We set the plate down with all the yummy bacon covered wonderfuls, and in a span of about 20 minutes they were gone. Seems that whenever something is covered in bacon, i has a tendency to disappear fast. People who arrived late to the party were reminded that they missed out on the bacon tasty things, and those poor people were sad. But, snooze, you lose!

After eating the wonderful snugly wrapped with bacon treats, I suddenly felt better. Like I nothing could go wrong. Like I could destroy any foe that came my way. Now if that ain't healin power i don't know what is.

ALL HAIL BACON!

Sushi at the Yardhouse?

2009-05-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Yardhouse. I've written about it before. But then i was telling you about a wonderful burger creation that had lobster on it. And when I think about the Yardhouse I think of burgers and beer and fried yummy things with cheese and classic rock tunes. All of these things are appropriate, but would you imagine sushi at the Yardhouse? No i didn't either.

Well I'm trying to eat kinda healthy now. It would be a waste if I'm gonna workout and still pig out on fried foods. What would be the point right? So I decide to think outside the box and see Sushi: California roll in the appetizer section of the menu. So since I like California rolls i figure i take a stab at eating that. And since anytime I've eaten them they have been small rolls, i ordered the mushroom/tofu lettuce wraps as well. How's that for healthy eatin?

Well our food came to the table. The Boy got mac and cheese and fries, and V got a turkey burger with avocado and I got this giant round thing with a brown wasabi sauce around the outside and red Chinese hot sauce dotting the outside of the plate as well. It was gigantic. As far as size goes, think about the size of my fist. It was just a bit bigger than that. And I also got the mushroom/tofu lettuce wraps.

The Jumbo Cali roll had sliced avocado (which V happily accepted cause avocado tastes like....well its gross to me) and lobster bits on it. And the roll itself was nice and light and yummy with the wasabi/hot sauce combo and a touch of soy sauce.

Truth be told, that's not a California roll, but i didn't really care because it was damn good and next time I'm at the Yardhouse there is a high probability that I'll order it again.

If i was to review our orders:

The Boys Meal:
Mac and cheese and fries. can't mess this up. It gets a 5 out of ten. Why? Cause the boy actually prefers mac and cheese out of the box. this was a little to real for him.

V's meal:
Turkey Burger and fries: I'm thinking she gives it a 6 out of ten. there is always room for improvement right?

My Meal:
California Roll: 8 out of 10. I'm telling you, its good, its really good.
Mushroom/tofu lettuce wraps. 5 out of ten. It was good the first day but something was missing and the leftovers were not that great when reheated.

I say another good experience at the Yardhouse.

Support Systems and dealing with Excuses

2009-05-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

Alrighty, My last blog was about me finally committing to a workout system (P90X) and I'm 17 days into it and I have not missed a day of working out (6 days a week) since I started. Haven't missed a day until today that is.

Why did I miss today? Well i was thinking about that and this morning at 4:45 when I my alarm went off I told myself and my wife that I was tired because i went to bed late. And that's not a lie, but its not entirely the truth either. If I'm going to do this, and do it right I have to be accountable and tell the truth, even if it sucks.

The truth? The truth is that I hate Yoga. There I said it. I hate Yoga. I've done yoga twice. And no workout has summoned outright rage in me, but yoga does. After doing the yoga i want to hit things, i want to break things, i want to destroy. And I think i know why. I get so frustrated because I can't do a lot of the moves yet. I'm to fat to do a lot of those moves. But there is the catch, if i don't do the workouts, i won't lose weight, and if i don't lose weight I'll never be able to do the moves. I am going to do the yoga tonight, even if it kills me. I resolve to try and have a positive attitude about yoga.

Then there is my workout support system. It starts with my wonderful wife who has been nothing but supportive. Everything I have mentioned to her has been met with praise and encouragement. Her support means more to me and drives me more than she'll know. Or maybe if she reads this she will know after all.

Then there is my boy. He inspires me and has worked out with me. I was doing one of the workouts called "Kenpo X" which is basically a cardio workout with a martial arts theme. He was kicking and punching and yelling with me the whole time. And it made me very happy. I want to be a good example to him, and being a fat couch potato isn't doing it.

Then there is Karen, my workout buddy. She's doing this workout called turbo jam. And we have been encouraging each other with phone calls and text messages and we have basically be kicking each other in the pants to continue kicking ass!

Then there is Colleen. She wants to be the biggest loser. She went and got the biggest loser DVD's to work out to and now she's kicking it old school with the rest of us.

The last support I have is the user forums at beachbody.com. Any question i have had regarding nutrition, or meal planning, or how to properly use the workouts there has been somebody there to answer the questions and provide encouragement. Its been great.

With holding myself accountable, and with my strong support system, I'm gonna keep rockin the P90X!

A Fat Dude's Experience with P90X

2009-05-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, lets come to a realization first of all. I'm not one of the thinest guys around. Shocked? No not really? Didn't think so. Well after 37 years I finally got tired of being a fat ass. I've always been big in some way or another. It just that good livin and holding down an office chair ain't getting me any lighter.

I finally decided to do something about it, all by myself and all for myself. There are other reasons that pushed me, but lets just say I had what I'll call an epiphiny about a friend who's been gone for about 10 years.

So I've been seeing this P90X thing on TV for a while now and have always been intriged by it. So I just decided to do it. And lets not fool ourselves its not cheap. Plus you need other equipmet to complete the exercises. And its a committment. 90 days of hardcore working out. because you know the X, well guess what it stands for............yeah its for extreme.

I expected my wife to give me a hard time about wanting it because I've never ben what we'll call a consistant workout person. And for the investment in dollars this would take, I had to run it by her first (but don't get me wrong, i'm the man of the house, i do whatever i want!...right?). To my suprise she was fully supportive. So i placed my order. Now the place that sells this also reccomends that you buy all their equipment and supplaments and all that Jazz. Well I didn't. I got supplaments at wal mart, and equipment from wal mart and amazon.com. The official P90X stuff is expensive.

4:45 am Monday May 4th 2009 I started P90X and committed to it fully. Doing the workouts, eating right and taking proper suppllaments. My first exercise was Chest and Back Followed by what is called Ab Ripper X. It was over an hour of really intense working out. I've never worked out that hard in my entire life. But I felt really good after. Right after I drank what is called a "Recovery Drink" Its some fancy thing that's supposed to help your muscles heal. and I took a vitamin. haven't done that since I was a kid.

Tuesday May 5th 2009. I'm thinking I am the dumbest man alive for doing this. I am sore sore sore sore sore....well you get the point. On top of this, i did a cardio workout this morning called plyometrics or jump trianing.

The rest of the week was rounded out by Shoulders and Arms, Yoga, legs and Back and something called Kenpo of Kempo, but is a cardio workout using martial arts moves. Oh a word about yoga, HATE HATE HATE HATE the yoga. I don't natrually twist and turn that way and i can't see for the life of me how anyone else can either.

Flash forward to today I'm still doing it. Yeah its only week 2, but that's kinda a big deal for me. I've never stuck with any kind of workout that was this hard for this long. And I've done great with my food intake too. Don't know if I've lost any weight, but I know one thing, i feel frickin great. Even though i'm getting up at the crack of dawn and swatin in my living room.

I figure if i could make it through week one, it would be a miracle, especially how sore i felt all week, But in week two, i don't feel as sore as i did last week.

How is this Fat Dude's experience with P90X so far? Awesome!

Extermination of the Wicked and or Lazy and Stupid

2009-04-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not as mad as I was last night, but I'm not happy. The situation is this: I'm an a program to get my masters degree. I'll be done this year and that's good. But whare are there people trying to get in my way of getting this done? I'm talking about "team" members who do not pull their weight.

Right now i'm in a statistics class which is a hell of a lot more complicated than it sounds. I have never had homework harder than this. But the team project, Me and another team member finish our parts last week, but the rest of them did not complete their until yesterday when it was due. Well all except one who didn't bother to turn anything in at all. He submitted nothing for the team project????

So that puts me in a bind cause one team member says just turn in what we have. That's not acceptable at all. Less of a grade for me because you were slacking is not acceptable. So the two team members who did their stuff on time scramble last night to get the other part done. It got done, but we shouldn't have to work that way damn it!

How does someone enter into a masters program and then not do their work. I see it a lot more than I should. People not doing their team work. People answering class questions days or weeks late or not at all, and some who skip assignments all together. To me that is a reflection on them, and a reflection on the quality of work they will provide once they are done with the program (if they finish) and enter the working world. Why spend the money and then not do the work?

Its astonishing to me, it really is. I can think of no logical explanation other than sheer laziness or stupidity to explain their actions. Now their is an exception for every rule and I'm gonna feel like a dumb ass if it comes out that something happend to this individual. But until then I'll coddle my rage until its time to let it go...

Can you believe its time for 4?

2009-04-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

What is significant about the number 4? Well the significant thing about the number 4 is that my awesome son will be 4 soon (I want, uhh i mean he wants a big screen TV for his birthday) and it makes me think of the few years that I have been blessed with his presense.

I think of things that drive me nuts such as: Me: "Alex, why did you do that?" Alex: "because I did". And lets take this for example, he'll eat something like lets say a hot dog and proclaim it one of his favorits, but tomorrow he'll hate hot dogs and everything they stand for. And he's already learned the no so subtle art of playing his parents off against one another.

But for all the things that drive me absolutly crazy about my boy, there are 10 and more things that he does that I absolutly adore. Like he calls out for me at night just cause he wants me to sit with him for a few minutes. Or that he'll go to his mother just because he thinks she needs a hug, or wants one of his own. I even like when he sticks up for himself for example one of his cousins knock him down once, so alex got up and hit him in the head with a truck. A little over the top sure, but he had the right idea. And for some reason he calls his cousin lenna "the baby in his heart". I could rattle off 100 of these, but you may or may not get sick of them by the end.

The point is, i'm grateful to have the boy that I do, and any time spent with him, is time well spent, oh and can you believe he's gonna be 4? Holy crap he's getting old!

To Golf, or Not to Golf?

2009-04-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

I have what some people would view as a problem. I like to play golf. Some people do not see the logic of smacking a little white ball and then walking up to it and smacking it again. My old school buddy Jimmy Z recently said"Hit the white ball, walk up to it and pick it up, You won! You're done, o go drink some beer". And while that statement seems simple enough there is more to the game then either smacking the white ball or drinking beer after.

For me there is more to golf than just smacking the white ball, and repeating the process, oh anywhere from 80-100+ times in 18 holes. For one, i hate mornings with a vengence. I really do, but I absolutly love being first off the tee as dawn breaks and I hit the ball for the first time of the day. And there have been some times when it was downright cold, but i still love it. I also did chillin with my homboys, errr, well with Jan, the only friend I have that plays golf and gets it like I do. He'll go anywhere and play golf. Another reason why I dig golf is that it's "me" time. sometimes i just need to get away.

So there is more to gold then just smacking the white ball a bunch of times, it so much more. Jimmy Z should try it.

Oh and as a side note, my broken toe seems mostly healed at this point. I ran around the course all day and felt absolutly no pain whatsoever. Yea! for toe healage!

DIY Yakisoba Noodle stir fry

2009-04-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of y'all have had Yakisoba soup, or just the noodles at a Japanese eatin place, but if you haven't they are yummy. I made this last week in one of my spur of the moment recipe ideas and it was awesome.

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

2 packages Yakisoba noodles
1/2 pound asperagus
1/2 pound of cauliflower
Sriracha Chinese Hot Sauce
Wasabi Oil
Olive Oil

Cook the noodles per package directions (I cheated and did mine in the microwave. These come with a sauce packet, so don't forget that too.)

While the noodles are cooking, cut up your veggies and get them in a frying pan to cook with enough olive oil to not let the veggies stick. When the noodles are done put them in the frying pan and then on top of that add about 2-3 "turns of the pan" of both the Sriracha and the Wasabi oil. Cook together for about 3 minutes to give all the flavors a chance to mix and then serve hot!

Its good, its good, its good! Cheap, easy to make, and there are enogh for leftovers.

Nothing is free

2009-03-31T14:09:00.000-07:00

There is no such thing as a free lunch or so we have all heard right? Well that much is true. Nothing is free. There may be gifts, but there is cost associated somewhere right? For example lets say its christmas time. And I out of the kindness of my heart decide to give you a nice fancy gift of your choice in the, lets say the 20 dollar range. Well to you the item you are getting is free, but I have still incurred costs to not only buy the item, but also to possibly wrap and ship it to you.

So lets take another example. The government bailout. Billions and by this point ofer a trillion dollars are on tap to be distributed to just about every bank and carmaker that has the effort in their poor bodies to hold their hands out and say "gimmie, uhhh, gimmie please". The money to AIG, comes with strings attached right? The money to the carmakers comes with strings attached right(government forced GM CEO to quit)? And more importantly this bailout will fall onto the backs of the American taxpayer. But what it seems to me is that we are slowly sliding towards socialism. How can that be in America, the greatest example of democracy the world has ever seen?

I could go even further into a rant about how we the people elected socialism into office. I don't blame our president for it, its his right to run for office, and he ran a damn good campaign. No who I blame are the American people for voting in socialism. To amny of them have been swayed by the entitlement society that a handout should exist for everyone. but what they do not realize is that no handout is free. A handout always must be paid for in some fashion or another.

Sure we can be a robin hood economy, steal, i mean tax the hell out of the rich, and give to the poor. The problem with that is that before long, the big businesses and the wealthy move on to places where they can do business, and then all those tax dollars and jobs are gone anyway.

Oh crap, i've gone and ranted again haven't I? OK, so what do you think? Am I way off base? If so why?

Sandwiches, the most versitile food in the world.

2009-03-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Is there any more perfect food than the sandwich? It is perhaps the most versitile of foods. Any food item can be thrown between ANY two pieces of bread and there you go, instant sandwich! Now I probably could go on and on about all the gross combinations that would indeed still be called a sandwich, but suprise, i'm not going to. But instead my inspiration for this comes because of 4 things:

Quiznos' Toasty Torpedo

My boy wants Peanut Butter and Jam Sandwiches every day

Egg Salad Sandwiches

Cucumber Sandwiches

I haven't had one yet but dang does that Toasty Torpedo look frickin delicious!. MUST. HAVE. ONE. If anyone has had one, let me know hoe they are. The Boy was in a ham kick, everyday he wanted a ham sandwich with cheese. Well his teacher at school said he wasn't eating the ham anymore. So when asked he said he wanted peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch. And he has said that just about every day for at least a couple months. You would think he would get tired of it, but he hasn't. That's the wonderful thing about kids. One minute the love something, then the next they are completly done with it. Its something I'm having trouble getting used to, but I must all the same.

Egg salad is delicious. This I know because I have had plenty of sandwiches with that in it. And really a deviled egg is just an egg salad sandwich without the bread. You know its true. And the cool thing about the egg salad is that besides egg you can put just about anything you want in it and it will still be egg salad. But lets be honest about it, egg salad is a girls sandwich. Its lightly colored and kinda fluffy. its not manly like ham or even salami or roast beef. So yeah, its kinda a girly sandwich, but not nearly as girly as the cucumber sandwich. And that's a sandwich which is nothing short of awesome.

I made one this morning. The bread actually kinda sucked, but that's another story for another time. Peel the cucumber, slicle it up and get ready to rock! Take your bread (toast the bread as an extra bonus for your taste buds!)and put the mayo of your choice on both slices of bread. Then the fun begins. This is where your sandwich gets as crazy as you want it to be. How crazy might you ask? Hot sauce crazy. All those prissy women at tea parties who are famed for eating crustless, quartered cucumber sandwiches would never dream of desecrating their precious cucumber sandwiches with hot sauce, but I would! At this stage of the game add your favorite hot sauce or even Tony Cachere's Creole Seasoning.

After you are done with that add as many cucumbers as you want to 1 piece of bread. No need to be neat here. I'm not at a tea party, and chances are if you are reading this you arn't either. Now if you didn't add hot sauce or seasoning, please by all means add salt and pepper to the cucumbers. Then put the remaining piece of bread on top of the cucumbers and you have yourself one awesome cucumber sandwich!

Enjoy

Vegetarians vs Bacon Love

2009-03-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

Last night V's sis Crissy came over for dinner. Crissy is a shiny brand spankin new vegetarian. So we had noodles and rice for dinner but for us meat eaters V snuck on some grilled shrimp. It was all very tasty, but Crissy's new found Vegetarianism brought about some interesting dinner conversation about how mean we are to animals and all that. I can't deny any of that, mass produced meat is very cruel to the animals. But one thing sticks in my head the whole time I'm thinking about vegetarians, they don't eat bacon.

How can you give up bacon????

I would gladly give up all other meat if i had to as long as i could still enjoy the crispy smoky deliciousness that is bacon. There are foods that i actually despise, and I'll bet if you made bacon a part of it, that it would become a new favorite. Is there bacon in that tomato soup?? Let me at it!! Huh, you say there is bacon at the bottom of that tequila instead of a worm? Yummy, I'm chuggin it!! You got spinach dip there? Awesome, let me dip my bacon in it!!

Maybe Crissy giving up bacon is a good thing, that means more for the Boy and I right? No damn it, V won't let me eat any more than I do now. You know, that whole stupid "healthy thing". She is the destroyer of yummy bacon filled dreams.

The Pinkberry Adventure

2009-03-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

The other day the family was at a plant store (the most excellent Rogers Gardens if you must know) and after we were done we all had a hankerin for some Pinkberry frozen goodness. Well we were in Newport Beach at the time and Virginia was convinced that there was a Pinkberry in Newport Beach. So she looked it up on Google maps and it told her there was one near Fashion Island. So off we went. Well we drove all the way around Fashion Island and saw no Pinkberry. Somehow we became convinced that it must be on the outside of the mall.

Well she tried looking for another location and the Google maps told her there was a location not that far away from where we were. Well it looked kinda fishy to me so I zoomed the map as far as it would go, and the driving directions told us that Pinkberry was located on a boat parked in a boat slip. I'm thinking there was not a floating location for Pinkberry so it was at that point I decided that the only way we'll know for sure where this place is, is for me to call someone. So I looked up the number and called. The girl who answered the phone said they were inside the mall. But then I asked her where inside the mall were they. Seems like a fair question right? She go flustered and put down the phone. Next thing I know a guy gets on the phone and asks what I want and I repeated my question again. He told me where in the mall they were and we were on our way!

So then it was a yummy pomegranate pinkberry treat for me with captain crunch and fruity pebbles cereal on top. Life is delicious!

Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting (Everybody=Just me & a Door)

2009-03-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

Alright, so when I say everyone was Kung Fu Fighting, what I really mean to say is that the sliding glass door on the balcony and I were kung fu fighting. But the problem with that scenario is that I didn't know the door was fighting until it was too late.

The scenario is set up like this: Our hero (that would be me cause its my story!) was teasing grasshopper (that's my boy). Well we play kung fu every once in a while. And he is sitting in a chair on the balcony and I'm standing just inside. The Shimmering Dark Haired She-Devil (that's Virginia my ever so lovely wife) was saying something or other when I get the brilliant idea to show off to my boy my expert kung fu skills.

Now don't let my size fool you I am quite the kung fu expert in my own mind. But anyway I decide to kick the boy in the head. Not a real kick mind you, but a play kick. Usually he will giggle and then try and kick me back and we have a good laugh all while showing off our expert kung fu skills. So i explain to him that I'm going to kick him, he smiles cause we have been through this drill before. I start to swing my foot towards him....

But to my surprise Lightning quick balcony sliding glass door somehow jumps in front of my foot. I am fast to react, but not fast enough, my toe caught the edge of the fast moving door, and I the hero of the story, broke and dislocated my little toe.

OK so I know I'm hurt, and I'm trying really hard not to cuss out loud because the boy will pick that up and repeat it. But I look back at my loving wife and adoring son and what do i see? They have turned to look at each other, and then they burst out laughing. My support system, my reason for being, the two most important people in the world are ridiculing my pain?? Its enough to get really upset with them if it wasn't really really funny.

Fast forward to the next day. I put my shoes on to go to work, and step down on the shoe. I heard and felt my toe go "pop". And it hurt like hell. I knew then that something wasn't right. So i actually decided to go and get it looked at. Bottom line is that to toe was broken and dislocated, but the pop i heard and felt was me "relocating" the toe. And it would take about a month to heal. We are now about two weeks in, and a month seems about right.

Fear not people, your hero will survive to fight another day!

Confessions of a Metalhead / Kelly Clarkson

2009-03-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

Oh how the mighty have fallen. As a long confirmed lover of heavy metal music, I have found, listened to and loved all kinds of obscure forms of metal music. In fact one of my recent purchases is a band called Opeth. At its core it is death metal, with a lot of melodic interludes. However in music I have a weakness. A weakness that threatens my stature in the metal head world. What could bring this hard core metal lover down? Its Kelly Clarkson.

Yeah I said it, Kelly Clarkson. I dig her music, and I dig it a lot. But its not just her, there are a string of female vocalists that I like that would make my brothers in metal cringe with horror. The partial lists goes something like this: The previously mentioned Miss Clarkson, Jewel, Tori Amos, The Cardigans, Paramore, and metal gods forgive me (that would be Judas Priest) i even dig Cristina Aguilara. The women mentioned all have one thing in common. They can all actually sing, and sing very well.

So the reason for this metal heads confession has to do with Kelly's new release which is called All I Ever Wanted. And I have bought it, and its really damn good. Now there are a fair share of ballads on this release, but what i like is when she decides to rock. There are a number of songs like this such as My Life Would Suck Without you, and Why Ya Wanna Bring Me Down. If anyone reading this likes her music, then this will be more of the same. Its just another solid release.

OK, there I've done it. I have admitted to being less of a metal head. But I'm good with that. For a long time I listened to the most extreme forms of music and I really didn't care what anyone thought about that. Now I still listen to some of the most extreme forms of metal, but I also listen to girl power rock/pop songs. And I still don't care what people think about that. Well alright the metal head in me is a tad embarrassed, but I can live with that.

MIA / Pad Thai

2009-03-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

I was looking at the blog and its been kinda empty for a whole month. A lot has happend in that time. Unfortunately the subject of my last blog is still in the news, I've broken bones again, I've been having a hell of a time in my accounting class not with the content, but with the workload. I'll touch on all of these subjects and then some in the next few days so I can get rolling with this again. I know people are coming to this blog, because there were 20 unique IP addresses that visited this site in the last 2 weeks. I guess that was enough to want an advertising site to want to partner with my Blog. I said no, I'm sure the few people who actually come here don't want to see ads on the page, and neither do I.

I don't know who all out there has had the yummy noodle dish called Pad Thai. But if you get it from a good eatin place its damn good. However sometimes you get a hankerin for it and want to make it at home. Can you believe you can buy this in a box now? Of course when V made it she snazzed it up with fresh mushrooms and zucchini. And the box came from Trader Joe's. Pretty good. Was it authentic? No. Was it frickin yummy? Absolutely! If you have a hankerin for Pad Thai I would actually recommend Trader Joe's Pad Thai.

Octomom!

2009-02-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

Sounds like a super hero right? But sadly enough by now we all know that this is not the case. First things first, I won't use names because I am not going to promote anyone or any of that crap. I'm just going off on a rant and that's the way it is.

Ok, this woman already has 6 kids and she is a single mom, she doesn't work and a couple of the kids have special needs. One has autism and the other has something else. She claims she isn't on welfare but she is getting food stamps, and that's a form of welfare right? And of she doesn't have a job how are those 6 kids getting fed and clothed? Someone is paying for it and it sure as hell ain't her. Also, she is living in a 3 bedroom house. Six kids plus her is a tight fit. I know I've done it. Back in the day I lived in a three bedroom house with my mom and dad, and us 4 kids and that was tight. Can you imagine 6 kids plus parents? So this woman should be concerned with taking care of the 6 she already has and trying to make some kind of life for them. Well at least that's what a good mom would do...

Well that's now enough for our "superhero" Octomom. She want's more more more! Why does she want more? Because she's selfish. That's it. She wants more kids for selfish desire to have more kids supposedly because she was a lonely kid. Believe me, those 6 are not lonely right now. She was a lonely kid? To damn bad, do what is right for the kids you already have and drop your foolish selfish desires to the side.

But did she do what is right by her 6 kids? Nope! She went and go invitro fertilization and had more. Kids. 8 more to be exact. So now she has a litter of kids and 14 total. If she had been implanted with the kids and didn't have any already it may be different, it would still be a litter of kids I guess, but it would still be different.

Obviously this woman is nuts. There is something wrong in her head that compulses her to want all of these kids. She needs some mental help before she breeds again. There is no way that she will be able to take care of all of those kids. Unless she becomes the CEO of Exxon/Mobile she will not be able to afford 14 kids. That means the state will pay for it. No one is going to marry this woman. Eventually she'll have to tell a guy she has 14 kids and what man in their right mind is going to stick around for that?

Yes this woman is nuts, and she needs some serious help and or sterilization. But wait, she didn't implant herself did she? Nope. there is a doctor involved that I think needs to have his license revoked to practice medicine. I know that they plant multiple embryos to make sure one of them take. But 8?? How about going with 2 and if they have 2 kids that's fine, but 8? First of all there is the health of the mother to think about, and second there is the health of the babies to think about. This damn doctor is just worried about getting paid and its part of the problem that is wrong with the medical industry in the first place.

Maybe people who have embryos implanted should have to undergo psychological evaluations and the doctors should be monitored to see what they are up to. I mean you have to wait a week to buy a handgun but you can have 8 kids implanted into your belly? Lets get real here, the combination of a crazy lady and a greedy doctor ends up with 8 new kids and 6 older ones who will have a lesser life because of selfish desires.

That's my rant and I'm sticking to it.

Blue Water Grill Review

2009-02-16T09:40:00.001-08:00

This is a place that V and I have gone quite a few times over the years and have been treated to some damn good eats.

Well on Sunday Feb 15th we went to the Blue Water Grill in Newport Beach, CA

630 Lido Park Dr
Newport Beach, CA 92663

V wanted salmon and that's what she had. But to start we ordered Clams Casino. I haven't had these bad boys in a long time so it sounded good and we ordered them and they were frickin delicious! If you have never had them before Clams Casino (clams in the shell with butter spices and bread crumbs and then cooked) are awesome.

The Boy ordered fish fingers and usually kids food is a big pile of crap, but the fish was good quality and the tartar sauce was excellent as well. This was premium kids food, yes it came with fries but really what kids meal doesn't?

V ordered bronzed salmon and I decided to order the Maine Lobster roll which is basically a lobster sandwich. Strike number one was that V's and my food took forever to get there. Strike Number two: once the sandwich did arrive the roll was soggy which really pissed me off. I mean I don't mind waiting a while if the food is awesome. But soggy sandwich roll is not awesome so even thought the lobster tasted good, the sandwich sucked.

V's dinner on the other hand was damn good. Her rice side had cranberries in it, which she said was delicious and she liked her mashed potatoes. But the salmon, it smelled good and tasted good. Bronzed salmon is almost like blackened, but not burnt.

I actually complained about my sandwich to the waitress, and redemption was that I didn't have to pay for my dinner. So that was good I guess.

The verdict: Mixed. We have had waiting problems there before, but the food has always been great. This time there was a wait, but the sandwich was crap while everything else was good. We'll go back I'm sure because while I hated the sandwich, everything else I have ever ate there has been really good.

Even More Fondue Goodness

2009-02-15T19:52:00.001-08:00

The hell that is Valentines day. I live it every year. Now its not that I dread it or anything. Its just that my poor wife as some of you know is a florist and has to work 5 billion hours and the boy and I hardly ever see her during that holiday.

Anyway, on Saturday Valentines day V said she was not all that hungry and we decided to have fondue again. Well I searched for a simple fondue recipe because the last one while delicious was so damn complicated.

Here is the recipe I went with:

Ingredients

1 pound Swiss cheese, grated
1/2 Gruyere cheese, grated
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 1/4 cups (about) dry white wine
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon Cajun Seasoning
1 1-pound crusty French bread or sourdough bread, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
1 bag of Pretzel Rods

Instructions

Combine both cheeses, flour, nutmeg, Cajun Seasoning and white pepper in large bowl; toss to coat. Bring 1 cup wine and garlic to simmer in a heavy large saucepan over low heat. Add cheese mixture by handfuls, whisking until melted and smooth after each addition. Mix in more wine by tablespoonfuls to reach desired consistency. Transfer to fondue pot. Set fondue over candle or canned heat. Serve fondue with bread and Pretzels.

So I found a recipe on the Internet and changed it around. Well that's what I always do, its just me. But the results were delicious. And even better instead of wasting a whole bottle of wine for just over a cup of wine in this recipe I found 4 mini bottles of wine and just used two of them. I'll keep this recipe for future use as it was yummy.

Review of Anita’s in Fountain Valley

2009-01-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

First things First, let’s get this stuff out of the way. You are gonna want to eat here, so just get this info right now:

Anita's Western Broiler
11045 Warner Ave
Fountain Valley, CA

The Clan went there for lunch and the usual fare was ordered, burgers for us old folks and chicken strips and fries for the boy. But his review starts many many years ago with a story. Miss V had just had the boy you see at the local Fountain Valley Hospital, and hospital food being , well crappy hospital food, she wanted no part of it. I was given a mandate by Miss V in no uncertain terms (Imagine her grabbing me by the collar) “BRING ME A TURKEY BURGER WITH AVOCADO, GET ME FRESH FRIES AND GET ME A CHOCOLATE SHAKE AND BE QUCIK ABOUT IT!” I was obviously justifiably scared. Because if I did not deliver the goods as were screamed to me I was afraid for my life.

With my life on the line I went to Anita’s. From the outside it looks like every other Mexican place in existence in southern California. But I went in anyway. Lets just say that V enjoyed her burger so much that she had a few more before she left the hospital and was for sure the best fed patient there. One nurse started to give me crap about bringing outside food in, and I just looked at her and silenced her. I wasn’t gonna die because of her silly rules.

Fast forward to yesterday. V’s turkey burger, good as ever, the fries were fresh crispy and damn tasty. The boy’s chicken strips must have been good because he all of them. I got the bacon muyshroom burger. Delicious bread, crispy bacon, the mushrooms were not fresh but do you really expect that from a place like this? Assembled together (after I picked out the tomato) this was one damn tasty burger.

Best part about it was the prices were right. 18 bucks for large burgers, a super generous portion of fries and 4 gigantic chicken strips, plus drinks, that’s not too bad. We were so full from lunch dinner was not really needed that night. Go check it out sometime, you’ll thank me.

Review of Rockin’ Crepes in Huntington Beach

2009-01-26T11:43:00.000-08:00

Rockin Crepes
8943 atlanta avenue
Huntington Beach, CA 92646

You go to a place like Rockin’ Crepes for the atmosphere and not really for the food. I don’t know maybe it’s just me but theme eatin places seem to be big on theme and short on food. Well this place wasn’t big on theme it was gigantic, and the food, was pretty close as well!

Let’s start with the food. Everything on the menu (except for the coffee) including the crepes, fondue and the smoothies are named after a rock or metal band. And its not just crappy bands either, you can order a Pantera to eat, and was it down with a Slayer smoothie. Then they had real rock music playing. I heard everything from Tesla, to Metallica, from Black Sabbath to Judas Priest. Then the decorations of the place were done right. One wall was painted to look like a stack of Marshall amps. And the tables and chairs are done right too. We sat at the Ozzy Table. The Table had the Ozzy logo and the chairs had pics of Ozzy, Randy, Zach and Jake E Lee on them. So the atmosphere for this place was done exactly right!

On to the food: I ordered the Alice Cooper which was a crepe filled with bacon and cheese. Since I was a crepe virgin I wanted to start off slow and see what the crepe business was all about. Each crepe comes with a choice of fruit salad or macaroni salad and I opted for the Mac. V ordered the special which was not on the menu. She got the Van Halen which was a crepe stuffed with some chunky cheese and veggies and drizzled with perhaps the best tasting pesto I had ever had. I also ordered the Red Rocker smoothie (For those who don’t know the Red Rocker is none other than San Bernardino’s own Sammy Hagar!). I thought everything was awesome with one exception. The Mac Salad was dry. To dry for my tastes. But V’s Fruit salad looked pretty good.

How good was it? So good that V wants to go back again. I’m all for that. Rockin’ Crepes does indeed rock!

Pinkberry/Crackberry you make the call

2009-01-18T14:31:00.001-08:00

The other day the gang went to this eatin place called Pinkberry. It's what V calls Froyo. Its frozen yogurt. And its damn good frozen yogurt to. In the past I have had the regular version of it which is a kind of white tasting thing, while good leaves some room for improvement. The other flavor they have is Green Tea, or some tea flavored concoction. Since I do not like tea, I ain't eatin it.

But wait, they have a new flavor for 2009:

Go to the Pinkberry website if you so choose

If you can't read the small print in the picture the new flavor is Pomegranate. Let me tell you this flavor is AWESOME! I'd pick this flavor over crack cocaine any day of the week. I guess if I was a crack addict that would mean something, but I digress...

I get a medium and then you can add stuff to it, I added Fruity Pebbles, Captain Crunch and Pomegranate seeds. If I had to rate this treat I give it a 9 out of 10. I rate it this way because there is room for improvement in just about anything. But its still damn good.

Thanks, and peace out or something like that.

www.louthar.blogspot.com

Review of the Yardhouse Eatin Place

2009-01-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Yard House Restaurants - Great Food, Classic Rock, World's Largest Selection of Draft Beer

Yardhouse proclaims the following in their headline:

Great food
Classic Rock
Worlds Largest Selection of Draft Beer

2 out of 3 ain't bad!

The scenario: The family goes to Los Angeles to see the LA Kings get the crap beat out of them by the New Jersey Devils. We get to LA early and go have some dinner. Due to a 30+ minute wait at the ESPN zone we go to the newly opend Yardhouse instead.

Lets start with the Worlds largest Selection of Draft beer. This is a big fat LIE!!!!! I asked for 1 beer, and 1 beer only and that was a Labatt's Blue. Truly one of Canada's greatest exports into the USA. But there is one problem, Southern California does not know that it exists! Its on the menu at the Yardhouse, but at two different locations I am told that they are temporarily out. LIES! Oh well, we stay to eat anyway.

Let's continue with Classic Rock. The Yardhouse delivers on this one. I cannot remember one song that I didn't like the whole time that we were there. All of it was upbeat, toe tappin stuff. High marks on the selection of classic rock. I heard the Police, ZZ Top and a bunch of other good tunes.

OK, on to the Great Food. Again The Yardhouse delivers. The Boy orders Mac & Cheese and fries, typical kids fare, and it wasn't too bad. The top was dry, but underneath it was all kinds of cheesy. The only negative comment? This was billed as a kids dish and it was delivered in a dish that was bigger than my son. Kids are not eating out of this dish, its too hard for them. I took his Mac & Cheese and put it on another dish so it was easy for him to eat.

V got a turkey burger of some sort. I know it had avocado on it and bacon, but really that's as much as I know because I was so completly distracted by my burger. She did however give it high marks for taste. So that's good.

On to my burger of magnificence. I had what is simply billed as the surf & turf burger. Start with the Bun, a potato roll and it was grilled, but not burnt, then the cheese, swiss and american. Then the meat, a little undercooked for what I normally eat (I like my burgers medium well, and this was certainly medium rare) but it worked for this burger. Then there was the layer of grilled asperagus. It was crunchy, but not raw. And the kicker on top, sauted lobster! Damn that's some kind of good tasting burger. I have eaten a lot of burgers in my time, and this is with all honesty: This was the best burger I have ever eaten.

I would (and probably will) eat her again!

I'd rate it 4 out of 5 because of the Labatt's fiasco and the King sized serving platter that the boys mac and cheese came on.

Uh-oh...

2009-01-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

Who gave the keys to the clubhouse to the wife!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a quick shoutout to everyone...will chat later.

~V

A Backyard BBQ with no BBQ / 2009 Is Here All Y'all

2009-01-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, what gives? The title of this blog is "The Lucero back Yard BBQ" right? That is what the title says. OK, so I ask you dear reader has there ever since this blog was started been one mention of delicious mouth watering BBQ? Nope. Nada, zilch and all that. There has been mention of food, and that was fancy city boy fondue. Not stuck up in your ribs greasy in your fingers delicious BBQ. Well people since this is a new year I will tell you the "BBQ" is more a state of mind. This is for family and friends to drop on by and see what is up with myself, the wonderful miss V and "the boy".

Don't get me wrong I will feature food and food type things on here from time to time, but the focus is on whatever I want. Kinda a nice way to tell you this is about whatever tangent i get on for the moment. But wait there's more! if there is something you would like to talk about, or you want to argue/rant about, by all means let me know and we'll give it a go right here!

Most of all i want to have fun. I had a lot of fun with the blog since I started it in October, but I want to do a lot more with it in the coming year. I know sometimes I get off on a tangent about something and then just let it go, but I like this blog, and want to see it stick around. So come to the backyard (if we had one) pull up a chair at the table (if it was there) and eat up some BBQ (if there was any left).

Here is to a kick ass 2009 to all my family and friends (you know who you are)

Atheist Group Files Lawsuit Against Prayer at Presidential Inauguration - FOXNews.com Transition Tracker

2008-12-31T08:37:00.000-08:00

Atheist Group Files Lawsuit Against Prayer at Presidential Inauguration - FOXNews.com Transition Tracker

What the hell? Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with anyone believing what they want to believe. If I pass Joe on the street and he's worshipping the frog in front of him, well he's a moron, but its also his business. And even though I didn't vote for Obama, its his business to have his inauguration the way he wants it.

I get the whole Atheist thing, what its about and all that, but correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it supposed to be the belief that there is no higher power? That there is essentially nothing? So what is the problem? How can these Atheists be subjected to something without meaning for them and that essentially does not exist? I can be subjected to a baseball ball over the head, and I sure as hell would want that to stop. But could I actually be subjected to a bunny with a milkshake dispenser? While that would be sweet sweet subjection, its not gonna happen because it doesn't exist!!!

A quote from the article is: "The inauguration is not a religious event. It is a secular event of a secular country". Now while this may be what the Atheist and the Liberal Lefties want, that is not the case. This country was founded on religious freedoms and continues to be a country where faith is important to the majority. The lefties may get that majority to reduce someday, but that day isn't today.

Get real Atheists, you just look like the moron worshipping the frog in front of him with this nonsense. Can you really expect to be taken seriously when you come up with this retarded nonsense?

The All Nighter

2008-12-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

My son got a Zune for christmas. What's a Zune? Well its an alternative to the opiate of the masses the Ipod. Why did he get one? Well V and I both have one, and he loves music, so we got him his own. So we also decide that he should have music on the Zune when he opens it so I open the thing up, and it says to charge it first. So I go to do that and the funniest thing happens... The damn thing won't charge. I try different USB ports on the computer, but not a damn one of them works. So this whole time I'm awake on christmas eve after the Boy V and I ate our fondue extraveganza. They are in bed and I'm still up. Well I'm getting kinda mad at the whole process, but around 3 am I remember that I have a Zune AC adaptor and i go and get it and I plug it in and the Zune charges right up. I wait as long as i can and then i start messing with it putting stuff on it that he likes. So at 5:30 I'm done. I wrap it up, arrange all the hockey net that santa left him and put the Zune in the net. And then I go to bed about 1/4 to 6. Guess who wakes up at 6? Yup, the boy! And he comes into our room and is proclaiming SANTA BROUGHT ME HOCKEY STUFF!!!!!!!! and our morning began.......

The Fondue Follow-Up

2008-12-26T10:12:00.001-08:00

Round 1

Christmas has come and gone and as explained in a previous post us fancy people here were doing fondue for Christmas dinner. Well since we were going to be at V's mom and dad's house for Christmas we decided to do our dinner on Christmas Eve. I made a cheese fondue that had Havarti and Gouda cheese as well as white wine and chopped up bacon pieces. The cheese sauce was actually kinda complicated to make since you have to cook the wine part first and then very slowly add in the cheese. And that's the hard part for me. Cooking slow and patiently. I'm not good at that. But the payoff was delicious. The cheese and the wine we good together, but the bacon put it over the top. We decided to have the following as our dipping goodies: Asparagus, Cauliflower, Mushrooms, French Bread, Shrimp and Kielbasa. A note on the Shrimp and Kielbasa, there were cooked in bacon grease!!! And the veggies were roasted. Pictured above is the setup. The yummy veggies, meat and bread were soon dipped into cheesy bacony goodness! But wait that's not all, there was a fondue round two...

Round Two

As good as round one was, we decided to stop eating before everything was gone. Why oh why would we do something like that? Well because there was a round two for the fondue experience. There was a chocolaty dessert course. I know I know what y'all are saying: "Lou doesn't like chocolate, what the hell gives?". Well this was not straight chocolate. It was Hershey milk chocolate mixed with milk, whipping cream and of all things, marshmallows. And of course this had to be mixed as slowly as the cheese course. Throw the milk and chocolate in first, then the marshmallows and the the whipping cream. But in the end it was all a delicious mix of yummy. And to dip into the chocolate sauce we had top shelf freshly made marshmallows (not that bagged stuff I put into the sauce) along with blackberries, fresh pineapple chunks and chopped up rice krispie treats. We tore into this. It was all good. And we (all three of us) have decided that the fondue pot is here to stay and we will certainly do this again.

Round Three

The food coma. You know, you don't think that fondue will fill you up, but it really does. We had to wait about an hour from our first course until the second just to give our bellies a chance to settle down. And then after it was right to bed for the boy and V followed shortly thereafter. I had an all nighter and got no sleep at all that night, but that's a story for another blog posting.

Fondon't? no Fondue!!

2008-12-23T08:48:00.001-08:00

Us Lucero's, we are fancy people. That's just the way it is and how we roll here on the OC. You see we are now the proud owners of a fondue pot. What does that mean? Uhh, well it means that i mentioned that I'd like to own one of those fancy fondue thingies, to Virginia, and then she, well she went and bought one for 20 bucks at Target or some other fancy city boy place.

Anyway the test run for the fondue pot was a success. We had all kinds of things dipped in cheese. Lovely glorious cheese! And Alex really liked taking those nifty fondue forks, stabbing his bread, and then making it swim in the cheese.

All of this in preperation for my annual fancy pants Christmas dinner. I'm making gourmet fondue. In a future post, i'll let you know how it went, and if you are really lucky, i'll have a picture!

Its Christmas Time in OC!

2008-12-14T21:46:00.001-08:00

It was actually party time for the Lucero Clan today. WE had a Birthday party at none other than the congregating place of the rodents everywhere at Chuck E Cheese. Jon's boy Jude turned 2 and there was much eating of pizza and cake and playing of games.

But wait that's not all! Then we were off to party number two! It was a Christmas party at Becky's house. And none other than Santa Clauze was there! Alex even got up on Santa's lap and told him that he wanted a dump truck, a fire truck, a trash truck and a truck, oh and a watch. The he went and played with kids and then there was more pizza and more cake. That's what happens when you party as much as we do.

And while I am at it lets address this whole conspiracy for Santa to eat milk and cookies on Christmas eve? What is with that nonsense? Who insisted that this is how it really goes down? The cookie companies that's who! Think about it, who has the most to gain from the proliferation of cookies into every single home with children in it? Cookie companies do! And I for one will not be a part of their greed and manipulation of the hearts and minds of millions the world over. its time we as honorable people struck back at these evil conglomerates. Lets teach those devils in the keebler treehouses that we can take Christmas back!

SO what is my plan? Well its already in place. Ask Alex what good boys leave for Santa to eat and he'll proudly reply: "Chicken Wings!" I am just doing my part to.......Aw hell who am I kidding? I just want chicken wings.....uh I mean Santa wants them, yeah that's it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kings/Lucero's 3 - Blues/Fenders 0!

2008-12-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

There have been quite a few posts regarding the LA Kings playing the St louis Blues on this blog. They usually center around the trash talking that leads up to and throughout the game between clan Lucero and Clan Fender.

In this corner is Clan Lucero: Louie, Virginia and Alex. And in the other corner is Clan Fender, Colleen, Aron, Lilly and Lenna. Now obviously the Fenders have numbers on their side, but thier trash talking has been reduced by a very significant issue: the Kings have won all three contests between the teams this year. In fact last night there was not much of the way of trash talking before the game, and during the game there was not what i would call trash talking so much as quite a few text messages that went back and forth in the second period when the Kings backhanded the Blues good.

So while last nights trash talking was at a minimal, it was still good fun. Kings win the series for the season by default, as there is only one more game to go, and to this point Kings have dominated the Blues outscoring them 15-5 in three games. I for one am looking forward to the next Kings win, er game against the Blues...

The End of All Things

2008-12-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

I received a curious email from my sister Colleen. Well it said that Alex's christmas present was on the way. I'm assuming on the way to my place so we can set it under the tree. You see Colleen is not know as a timley gift sender. We usually have a Merry Febuary something or other because that's when the gifts usually arrive.

So I'm thinking that Colleen shipping gifts on time must be a sign of the impending apocalypse. It will be weird for me to say on christmas day: "Alex, here is a present from Aunt Collen and Uncle Aron. I don't think those words have ever been spoken at my house on December 25th. Sure we'll hear them on some random Feburary or March day, but never in December!

So now I feel like a complete salted slug as I've not even began to do any kind of Christmas shopping. Maybe this year Lilly and Lenna will be saying: "Oh thank you Aunt Virginia and Uncle Lou for our Arbor day gifts!" Who am I kidding, Virginia will never allow that.

Lucero's at the game again!

2008-11-29T12:29:00.000-08:00

here we are at the staples Center in LA to see the Kings verses the Blackhawks. Go Kings !

Idiotic Stubborness

2008-11-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks I have been sick. It started out as a annoying cough. It escalated into a cough that would not only keep me up at night but Virginia as well. So while I have been coughing I have been exiled to the couch to sleep. Well this past weekend i cought something else as well and it kept getting worse until the point where I actually gave up and went to the doctor.

Why did I wait so long? Cause I'm a dumbass that's why. When V is sick i'm all over her to go to the Doctor, but me? Noooooooooo! I stay miserable and make everyone else miserable as well. What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I so stupidly stubborn? I don't know? So the next time this happens I want V to hit me with a hammer and ship me off to the doctor.

Another thing that happend is that that when i went to get my prescription that was messed up. But all is well because I got my cough medicine that had sweet lady codine in it! Codine makes me sleepy and happy and oblivious to pain. When doped up on codine i know that i hurt, I just don't care.

I'm finally getting better, but it shouldn't have taken so damn long...

lucero's ar the game

2008-11-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

Here is Alex watching LA Kings hockey!

The Sadness that is Vandalia

2008-11-11T21:22:00.001-08:00

The Actual Game

There was a hockey game last Saturday. The Los Angeles Kings beat the St Louis Blues by a score of 5-3. That's good news. Even better? IN two meetings this year the Kings beat the Blues both times by a combined score of 9-3. Poor Paul Kariya did not play as the rumor is that he got scared because his sister threatened to kick his ass. Here is the actual ass kicking in question: On the left is Noriko Kariya and on the left is Paul getting his lunch money taken away by his sister. Lets talk about the game. The Blues actually played pretty well. In the first game their game was less then NHL caliber play, however in this game for a big chunk of the game the Blues were taking it to the Kings. Goodness prevailed however and the Kings held on for the 5-3 win

The Game Within the Game

Of course there was trash talking between the Fender and the Lucero clan. There were quite a few text messages thrown back and forth. The Virtuous Lucero's were praising the virtues of Bailey who is name after a former Kings scout. And those Fenders mocked him?? Dirty I say, just dirty. Both sides went so low as to involve the innocent children. Lou sent a picture of Alex in his Kings t shirt screaming GO KINGS! Finally the Lucero's won round two of the smacktalk hockey fight, the battle of Santa Ana versus Vandalia, the Lucero against Fender rumble and the battle between good (that would be the Kings) versus evil (that would be the Blues). How did the Lucero's win? Well for one the Kings won the game, but more importantly the Fenders ran out of gas and all fell asleep. Lucero's win Lucero's win! Fenders mumble "No Mas" and fall asleep!

Next date for the Kings v Blues / Lucero's v Fenders is December 11th at Staples Center in LA. I'll not miss it.

The Santa Ana / Vandalia Showdown Part 2

2008-11-06T18:58:00.001-08:00

During the last Santa Ana / Vandalia showdown the Lucero's prevailed because the Los Angeles Kings beat the St Louis Blues 4-0. The Fenders however opened the first shot in the previous showdown when Aron sent a text message that predicted a 7-1 blues win. That obviously did not happen. There were plenty of text messages and even a few phone calls exchanged during that battle, but in the end the powers of good triumphed over the powers of evil.

See here how the powers of good conspired to defeat Blues Goaltender Manny Legace:

Well there is another showdown this Saturday when the Blues are in Los Angeles to play the Kings. And already the trashtalking has begun. Colleen Sent a text message asking if the Lucero's were going to watch the Blues/Queens game, to which I replied, no, but we are going to watch the Kings beat the Bluesers. And so it begins. Who will win, who will lose? All will be decided on Saturday!

The Great Halloween Wrap-up

2008-11-05T19:14:00.001-08:00

This is the final Halloween Blog for the year.

A lot of Halloween stuff happened. We all went to the pumpkin patch:

We also had a Halloween party for the kids:

And Alex went trick or treating:

And then to cap it all off we carved pumpkins:

So as you can see it was a fun filled Halloween season. And we all know that now that the pumpkins are carved and the candy is eaten, its time for Thanksgiving and of course that means Christmas as well.

Happy Halloween!

Alex and his adventures with Croup

2008-11-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

Croup

I did not know what croup is until the other day. Alex had to go to the doctor because he has had an odd persistant cough for a while now (3 weeks i'm thinking?) And Alex has it. Seems that preemie babies are more succeptable to it. I had no idea. But here is another thing: He has been coughing so much that the lining of his esophogus is gone, and because of that it made him succeptable to the ear infection he also got.

The amazing part is that he really didn't fuss a lot through the whole ordeal. He coughs a lot and goes on with his business. He really is a remarkable child.

Check this, the anti-biotic that he got from the pharmacy was wrong. When I tried to give it to him for the first time is was the consistancy of heavy sludge. That's not how it was supposed to be. When he took it, he did not like it at all and threw up all over the place (all over being mainly Virginia and I). Well lo and behold it should be the cinsistancy of a yogurt shake. Dumb asses at the pharmacy anyway.

V and I decided to keep him at home yesterday and here is a list of activities that we did:

Played hockey in the living room
Played Video Games
Watched spongebob
Yelled at birds
Sung Halloween songs
Went to Lunch (more on that in a bit)
Went to the hardware store(again, more in a bit)
Played with motorcycles and Firetrucks
Made Waffles and Bacon for dinner

That's a lot in a day.

At Lunch we went to a Chinese Buffet. and he ate: Chow Mein noodles, French Fries, Chicken Nuggets, Egg Rolls, Pizza, Creme Cheese filled wontons and Cookies and Ice Cream. Little piggy can sure put it away

At the hardware store we looked at power tools, regular tools, tool boxes, plants, gloves and storage sheds. We were there for 2 hours playing in the hardware store. It was wonderful.

So Alex has the Croup, but from the looks of things the Croup doesn't have him!

Call Me Stupid

2008-10-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

I could be smarter. No no no, really, i'm serious!

Lets take last night for example. I have a paper to write for school. This paper is due by 12 midnight. When do i get it done? 11:47. Now I know what you are thinking: "No harm no foul, and you still had 13 minutes to go!". That may all be true, but i still should have had it done earlier. You see hockey was on last night, Alex didn't want to go to bed on time, hockey was last night..... you get the picture. I guess the bottom line is that I'm dumb for getting done so late, but even i'll admit that pressure made me write one hell of a paper!

Call me Stupid/Call me Genius!

Video Blog Test

2008-10-25T19:20:00.001-07:00

Halloween Songs

2008-10-25T16:41:00.001-07:00

At my son's pre-school they sing all kinds of songs. Well this week, and last week and the week before that one has risen to the top. And here it is in all its glory:

Halloween is comin'

Ghosts and goblins in the air

Big Cats, Scary Witches

ooooooooooooooooooooooooBOOOOO!

Ghosts	Goblins	Big Cats	Scary Witches

Yup, that's how it is. I have sang that song with my boy at least 5 million times, and i'm sure we'll do at least that many more this week. He is SUPER EXCITED for Halloween!

Kings Win 4-0, Lucero's win game against the Fenders

2008-10-24T20:37:00.001-07:00

Its the battle of the Kings vs the Blues. Its also the battle of Santa Ana, CA vs Vandalia, IL. The California Lucero's are Kings fans and those Illinoiz Fenders are Blues fans. Tonight the Kings came out on top 4-0. there was everything in this game for a Kings fan: goals, saves and fights! Plenty of trash talk before the game from both parties. And sure i called after every Kings goal to rub it in. And yeah I sent text messages during the game as well. Hey I'm a kings fan, and I have to take wins where I can get them. I wish the Blues well except when they are playing the Kings. And I feel bad for the 9 foot tall rookie goaltender that got thrown into the net for the Blues, but of course I felt even better for the Kings. Kings are now 3-3 on the year. They are playing a tough brand of hockey finally. And of note is that the kings are perfect on the penalty kill still. Even after facing the leagues top power play in the blues. That's it, no more gloating for me! But GO KINGS!

More Halloween Madness

2008-10-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

This is how Disneyland does Halloween.

Halloween is coming!

2008-10-23T21:09:00.001-07:00

Halloween is almost here. So that makes me think of last Halloween and my boy's costume then. He was a NINJA!! Yeah Ninja's are way cool, but ius he going to be a ninja this year? Nope! He's going to be the Jewish Spider Man. Jewish Spider Man??? Yeah, and the reason

I say that is that this costume does not have the full face mask, it has a little yamika (i don't know how to spell it). it only covers his hair. So once he goes trick or treating i'll throw out a picture here.

So my question is, what was your all time favorite Halloween costume and why?

First Blog Entry

2008-10-23T16:11:00.001-07:00

This is a test, just to see how this goes